Code: Evolution
by Alexavis
Summary: This is Code Lyoko Evolution based. Xana has returned with backup and Lyoko Warriors arn't alone. A girl with a link to Franz Hopper's past appears to help after 3 years of watching over them. Respecting his wishes, she travels to France for nothing more than to see Xana and Tyron defeated once and for all. But of course when you're with the Gang, you kinda open up and change. OxOC
1. Xana 20

**Chapter 1 - Xana 2.0**

**A/N So this is basically CLE however with my OC that's been around for years now with yet another different backstory XD. The plan is to follow the plot of Evolution as much as possible with slight changes.**

**Chapters will be as followed format - Chapter [ episode # ] [episode name] or for side chapters or none episode chapters - Chapter [ episode before .5 or whatever depending on how many b/t eps] [ chapter name]**

**I need to stop procrastinating. This WILL (as i tell myself this) be the one CL fanfic i finish on my own. My past few either somebody else continued them, i felt the idea was stupid and childish or i was too lazy to finish. But i'll try my best!**

**The main enemy, besides Xana, Was originally called Alan Meyer during planning for season 4 and for CLE but apparently the name changed during production to Professor Tyron and the actors that play Yumi and Ulrich were asked about Alan and were clueless. So unless i hear otherwise he will be known as Tyron in the fanfic**

**I don't own Code Lyoko but I do own Crystalic Landers. Now on with the story!**

* * *

-Kadic-

It was nothing more than a normal day. It has been a few months since the gang had shut down the Supercomputer and all seem to return to normal teenage lives for them. Jim jogged into the computer room pushing his students to their annoyance limits.

"Hurry up you worms! Come on! Use those muscles this is still a PE class here! Stern don't limp along!" Jim yelled behind him as students filed in one by one.

"I don't understand why we are going to the computer lab for Gym sir." Odd complained.

"Aha you're curious Della Robbia right? Come I'll show everyone."

Jeremy walked up groaning. Without the Supercomputer to keep him away he had to face the horros of gym yet again. " Gym with computers? With motion sensors I assume?"

Jim glared at him. " Very funny Belpois. We need to work on your motivation! We don't have students we have geeks now!"

Aelita laughed and walked over to Jeremy. " Maybe now you'll actually be able to pass Gym class now Jeremy."

Jim jogged in place while pulling out cds. " Well I found a way to make you all move using a computer, it's called cyber-sport! Come on here we go!"

* * *

-Somewhere in Japan-

The alarm next to the young girl's bed went off at 10 am France time, even though it was the middle of the night for her. Sighing she slipped out of bed and walked over to her computer before shaking her head.

"What the hell are you doing girl? Xana's dead there isn't a reason to wake up." She turned to return to bed before she noticed on the computer screen the Xana symbol flashing red. " Oh no…." It was at that moment she realized it wasn't her alarm that woke her up. It was Xana himself.

* * *

-Kadic-

"Damn no way!" Jim was fusing around with the teachers computer trying to figure out, with his non technological mind, how to somehow get the sports game to work!

Odd turned to his depressed friend while Jim was distracted. "Ulrich what's wrong? Don't tell me it's about Yumi again."

Ulrich thought for a moment. "What am I suppose to say? ' Oh Yumi I love you! You're the love of my life?' "

" Oh yeah.. Right.." Odd looked back over to Jim, who just couldn't seem to find the CD driver to place the CD in. "You need to be cooler, like 'Hey Yum , come here. I've got something to tell you!. ' I love you it's not that hard to say Ulrich buddy."

Ulrich laughed. " Great. Got anymore stupid plans Odd?"

"FOUND IT!" Jim shouted. He finally managed to find the CD drive and placed the cyber-sport CD in. Little did he suspect the electric surge flowing into the computer as it shocked him away when he attempted. The class erupted into giggle as he laid on the floor for a few seconds.

"You probably meant Cyber-war huh sir?" Odd said.

Jeremy laughed and looked over to Aelita, who had a attentive look on her face towards the computer monitor.

Jim stood up and went back over to the computer to find coding all over the screen, confused as to what was occurring. "Anyone able to tell me what in the world is going on?"

Aelita looked at her monitor just as confused as he was. "Jeremy, on the screen there was…" By the time he looked her monitor had gone black before returning to normal.

* * *

-Courtyard-

Odd and Ulrich sat at one of the benches outside in the courtyard watching Yumi not to far away, speaking to William.

" Go on tell her!" Odd urged his friend.

Ulrich shook his head. "Are you kidding? With him still there? No way."

"William is a nice guy though."

" I'd rather say nothing than listen to this."

Over with Aelita and Jeremy, Aelita was trying to convince Jeremy that she saw Xana.

" I'm telling you that is what I saw." The pinkette protested.

Jeremy looked at her. " Yes though you must admit it's impossible. We destroyed it"

" What if it survived though?"

William placed his hand on Yumi's shoulder. "I've gotta go. Catch you later?"

"Sure" She nodded and pulled out her ringing cell phone.

Ulrich stood up and grabbed his backpack with a determined face. He walked over to where Yumi was standing but stopped when William returned to compliment her new haircut. The minute he left Ulrich walked in front of her.

"Ulrich are you alright?" Yumi asked.

" Yes, er , well I needed to tell you something important." He stuttered. " See well we used to be Lyoko warriors and stuff. So… Well I can confess to you that that's behind us now."

A few feet away Odd shook his head. "We have a long way to go."

"And so we don't have missions anymore.." Ulrich wasn't able to finish before the school bell malfunctioned and began to beep a very loud alarm, forcing everyone to cover their ears.

The alarm speaker sparked, before turning off and falling off.

Aelita and Jeremy watched sparks of electricity shoot out form the speaker and through the cable.

"Tell me you saw it!" Aelita pleaded. Jeremy did nothing more than shake his head is shock.

* * *

- Somewhere in Japan -

Papers were everywhere in the girls room.

"No no no this can't be possible. Damn it Waldo you told me you had it under control!"

The light of the computer monitor caught her face and she pushed her short, sky-blue hair behind her ears. Sitting down, she typed away on the keyboard bringing up and interface for an avatar program along with the coordinates of the activated tower.

"Guess it cant be helped. Aelita and her friends will need the help. After all these years they still have to be involved in this mess."

* * *

-Jeremy's room-

" I saw the evidence! Even this morning with the computers in gym there were lines of codes" Aelita explained. "I've seen them too much already, we all have."

"But didn't we destroy Xana?" Ulrich pointed out.

"We can double check. Turn on the supercomputer and run a scan." Jeremy proposed.

Yumi spoke up. " For what? To explain our school is in ruin and that Jim is crazy?"

Ulrich laughed and agreed with Yumi. " Our Lyoko warrior days are over you know."

Aelita became aggravated. " You're laughing when Xana may still be alive? Back then even with quarter of a doubt you all would have rushed to it.

Jeremy sighed. " Aelita is right."

They all finally gave in and proceeded to the sewer entrance and to the factory in what seemed like forever. The place still remained the same, abandoned as they left it last and entered the Supercomputer room.

"It's freezing in here!" Odd complained, rubbing his hands together for warmth.

Jeremy smirked. "Well it was the supercomputer than kept this room warm after all Odd." He then reached his hands out towards the power switch.

"Wait." Ulrich stopped him. "We're gonna reactivate all of this based on Aelita's feelings?"

" I saw Xana's codes Ulrich! I'm sure it was him!" She replied. "Jeremy either turn it on or I will."  
Jeremy nodded and placed the keycard into the interface, turning the Supercomputer one for the first time in months. Last time he did this alone, but now his friends were right next to him.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Something had stirred in the digital network, sensing the awakening of Lyoko relighting the one area of the network.

* * *

-Lab-

"Everything seems to be in order. Wait.." Jeremy typed away looking at the strange information on the screen. "It's not Xana but it seems two sectors are missing."

"Maybe the data was lost last time we turned the supercomputer off." Ulrich suggested.

"None the less I'll run a superscan. That should tell us if Xana is back or not." Everyone looked at the screens hoping Jeremy would return some good news. " Nothing on the sensors, or Data flux. Well now to check the towers." He hit a few keys and the screen zoomed to it's duty.

Jeremy sighed in relief. " Nothing, no activated tower, no sign of Xana at all!"

Aelita didn't look convinced. " Xana isn't exactly the type to leave ' I'm back ' Notes lying around. Maybe in another world…"

" We destroyed all the replikas. " Jeremy said. " There are no other virtual world's with a complexity such as Lyoko's. If the super-scan didn't pick up anything it's because Xana's not there anymore. We destroyed it months ago.

"Then I'll just go to Lyoko" Aelita said.

Odd jumped up. " I'll go too!"

"But why Aelita?"

Aelita looked at Jeremy with pleading eyes. "To go to the core, to see my father before you turn it off again, please."

Jeremy finally gave in while Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other like " Anything for Jeremy's Angel."

Odd smiled at Aelita and they took the elevator downstairs to the scanners.

_Scanner ready. Transfer ready._

_Scanner Aelita. Scanner Odd._

_Virtualization._

The minute she was virtualized, Aelita wandered off towards the labyrinth while Odd stayed behind, and played around of course.

Shooting a few laser arrows Odd exclaimed, " Feels good! I'm almost disappointed by the lack of monsters!" Noticing Aelita running to the labyrinth he put his paws to his sides. " Hey Aelita the labyrinth is over there. Don't you want to go to the Core of Lyoko? Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Yumi sat up straight in the lab while Ulrich played on his phone. "Well when they finish their litlle stroll, you'll turn off the supercomputer. Do we agree?"

"Huh oh yeah Yumi. " Jeremy noticed something strange on the monitor. " What is this thing? Come see…" looked over to the elevator and Yumi and Ulrich just waved goodbye to him. " Ulrich? Yumi?" He shook his head and went back to the screen.

"Hey Jeremy, can you give me my board?" Odd asked. His overboard materialized in front of him and he jumped on taking it for a spin. " Yahoo!"

* * *

- Sewers-

Ulrich and Yumi walked down the sewers together heading back towards the school.

" I love Aelita, but really… You could say she did all that just to go back to Lyoko."

" I can understand that." He replied. " But, anyway, the point is that Xana is gone. "

" Yeah I can completely agree with you." She stopped him. " Didn't you have something to tell me earlier? At least before the speaker went haywire?"

Ulrich paused. He completely forgot about confessing to Yumi. " Uh, yeah, yeah…." A little workout at the gym? What do you say?"

Yumi climbed up the ladder and looked over to him. " Sure."

* * *

-Lyoko-

Aelita walked up to an inactive tower while Odd flew around on his overboard, being… well Odd.

"So Aelita I was thinking… Since Xana is gone and all we could do something with Lyoko. Make it an amusement park, it's be stupid not to use all this."

Aelita just continued to stare at the tower.

" Like 'Welcome to this new, revolutionary theme park! Three surprising and mysterious worlds await you! Welcome to Lyoko Land!' " Odd spoke wile doing tricks in the air and jumping over obstacles in sector 5's ceiling.

Aelita placed her hand on the tower, as if she were feeling it or trying to enter.

" What do you think?" Odd noticed she wasn't even paying attention and sighed.

* * *

- Gym-

Yumi tackled Ulrich and threw him over her, before proceeding to jump on top and pin him to the floor mat. "So you were saying?"

He smiled and rolled on top of her this time. "I'll say it if I want too." Their looked into each others eyes in silence and Ulrich thought about kissing her when suddenly Jim entered the room.

Interrupting the mood, " Ah bravo! Working out outside of school hours! Finally some dedicated students! Since the cyber-sports are done. Too virtual."

Ulrich and Yumi looked back to each other and giggled. If only Jim knew what they were up to for 3 years.

"Contact, real, sweat, body against body! Get going, kids. I need to change a few fuses." Jim winked and walked off to the back area of the gym.

* * *

- Lyoko -

Out of the corner of the Avatar's eyes, the blue haired girl could see Odd Della Robbia doing handstands on his overboard and talking nonsense about some ghost overboard and skeletons. She couldn't help back laugh back at her computer.

" What an idiot." She said. " Now where the hell is this tower?" She pulled up a interface and began scanning the sector before it beeped and located the red tower.

"Odd no you can't use Lyoko to flirt!" She heard Jeremy's voice.

" God they will be here forever." the girl sighed and sent a signal to the Supercomputer of the tower's location before running off towards it.

"Odd, Aelita I've located a signal! A tower was activated in Sector 5."

"But there's only one here, and it's inactive in front of us." Odd mentioned.

" This is a new tower. Hurry."

Odd and Aelita had the same look and ran off. If there was a 2nd tower in Sector 5, and it was active, it was bad news. That's when they hand their welcoming party of 3 megatanks. One of the tanks open up and fired, causing the two to split and dodge. Before a second one could fire at Aelita, Odd quickly grabbed her and flew his overboard away.

"Jeremy! Who was the one to say Xana was gone?" Odd said.

Jeremy shook his head in disbelief. " I don't understand, the superscan saw nothing at all. And then a tower appeared!"

" That because you didn't look hard enough and I sent you the signal Jeremy." The girl flew next to Odd and Aelita on some sort of disc that had a rotating ring around it. " You know you really should upgrade the damn thing I can't keep helping you."

Aelita looked over at her. She was about 5 foot 6 with short blue hair pulled into a similar style as Yumi, only the split in the bangs had 4 yellow hairclips. Her outfit consisted of a dark blue sleeveless jumpsuit with blue gloves starting at his middle finger and ending up above her elbows. From there the gloves connected to the grey neck and shoulder gaurds with ninja like fish nets. Her skirt was nothing more than knee length cloth cut to the belt into 4 different pieces, for easier fighting. For finish, she had black boots and the shoulder guard had a symbol on the chest area of a diamond surrounded by rings, and wore a interface visor for glasses.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Name's Crystalic. Enough chitchat. Xana is back and we have some megatanks blocking our way to the tower. Follow me." Crystalic took off down a tunnel.

"Should we trust her Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

" I don't see any other options right now. Just be careful."

Crystalic exited the tunnel and waved for the others to follow her to the right. She looked past and saw the three megatanks right on their tails.

* * *

- Electric room-

Jim scratched his head. He had no idea how to fix this mess or even where to check next.

" Can't they just put a single large button here with a label that it's the one? That one isn't, there are dozens of buttons everywhere! Hmm what's written here?"

He looked over at on of the panels for a closer look. It read volt, Ampere and what he looked as vatt to him. Electricity sparked form the panels and shocked Jim before a specter of himself materialized in front of him and caused him to pass out straight on the floor.

* * *

-Lab-

" Ulrich where are you?" Jeremy was on the phone with Ulrich's voicemail. " Aelita was right. Xana is attacking and there's a strange girl named Crystalic here. Return ASAP and pay attention."

* * *

- Gym-

Ulrich was trying to tell Yumi something.

"Well we are here. You wanted to tell me something?" Yumi asked.

He mustered up all the courage he had. " Okay, I'll tell you. Umm… it's really simple… I have feelings for you. That is I…" he stopped when he noticed Jim walking over to the two. " No it's fine sir we finished. We don't want to exercise anymore."

Jim grabbed Ulrich with an unemotional face.

" I don't feel so good…"

Yumi shouted at Jim. " Stop, you're hurting him!" She ran and pushed Jim off.

Ulrich stumbled. " My visions all blurry.." He grabbed onto Yumi for support.

" I'm taking you to the nurse. It seems serious." Ulrich nodded and Yumi's phone rang.

" Jeremy? What? Xana? Crystalic? A specter?" She looked up at the Jim specter. " Run! That's a specter not Jim!"

* * *

-Lyoko-

"The tower!" Odd shouted. The trio had finally managed to make it to the tower.

" We still have company to take care off." Crystalic jumped off her disc and grabbed it. The disc's ring spikes appeared and she threw it at on of the megatanks. It caused the Megatank to explode on impact, at the cost of her vehicle.

Odd flew past another and shot a wide range of arrows, killing another. " Ha two less now!" He spoke to soon, as the third megatank fired it's attack and knocked Odd off the Overboard.

" Odd quit fooling around." Crystalic shouted. The megatank fired again and she made a pair of long bladed Tonfas, one with a crescent moon and the other with a sun, appear in her hands. She threw them up in an X shape in front of her face and stopped the attack from hitting Aelita.

" Go!" She shouted at Aelita. " Deactivate the tower. We'll be fine!"

Odd dodged a few more attacks from the megatank before finally getting devirtualized.

" I don't think I'll be getting that amusement park now…" He stumbled out of the scanner.

Aelita charged up a energy field and fired it at the megatank. Crystalic ran up close and sliced its armor right as it retracted.

* * *

- Park-

" When he touched me, he transmitted something." Ulrich explained, struggling to get into the sewer entrance.

Yumi held him for a moment, helping him inside. " I'll guide you."

* * *

-Lyoko-

The third megatank was finally defeated by Aelita, and the two girls gave high fives. However they didn't notice the two krabes appear in front of the tower until Crystalic was hit by a laser.

* * *

- Sewer-

" Here sit down." Yumi walked Ulrich over to the wall and set him down before her phone rang again. " Yes Jeremy? Ok. Ok." she put her phone away and looked over to Ulrich. " I have to go, Odd was just devirtualized and is coming back for you." She placed her hand on his cheek and ran off.

* * *

- Lab-

Yumi ran into one of the scanners. " Jeremy I'm here. Tell Odd to hurry up, I'm worried about Ulrich!"

* * *

- Sewers-

Ulrich saw a figure running to him and jolted when it touched him.

" Hey Ulrich it's me! Jeremy told me everything. The specter is Jim right? Come on let's hurry." Odd grabbed him and helped Ulrich up.

* * *

-Lyoko-

"Hey Yumi glad you could join us!" Crystalic said when Yumi flew by on her Overwing.

" You must be Crystalic?" She tossed her fans at one of the krabes and destroyed it.

" Yes and you are just in time. Thanks for the help!" Crystalic jumped up on top of the second krabe and stabbed it with the elbow end of her bladed Tonfa.

Aelita flew into the tower. And to the top platform.

* * *

-Sewers-

Ulrich tripped causing Odd to catch his own balance.

"You really can't see anything?"

Ulrich stood up with his help. "Sorry Odd."

The specter walked up behind the two boys. Odd laid Ulrich against the wall and walked up to it.

" You like cyber sports huh?" Odd tried to punch the specter, only to get caught by it. He collapsed as the specter seemed to be draining him of something.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Aelita opened up the interface and placed her hand on it.

_Aelita_

_Code_

_Lyoko_

* * *

-Sewer-

The specter exploded.

* * *

- Jeremy's room-

" So what does this mean. Did we destroy Xana, yes or no?" Ulrich asked.

" Yes and no. When Aelita, Odd and Yumi were virtualized, they had a red outline flashing around them." Jeremy explained.

His computer booted up and an image of a blue haired girl on webcam appeared on the screen.

" Xana basically in short, Imputed code into the four of you. Source codes, to be exact. He did this just before he was quote 'defeated' unquote."

" How do these codes help him?" Odd asked, confused as ever.

" It's probably how he survived. By injecting these codes into us and recovering them, he'll regain all his power." Aelita spoke.

Crystalic nodded. " Unfortunately Xana was smarter than Franz anticipated and managed to survive it's own destruction. He can control the network again if he were to get them all back."

" We just need to turn off the supercomputer." Yumi pointed out.

" No that won't work." Crystalic protested. " Xana was able to launch those small electrical attacks even while the supercomputer was turned off. I'm still looking into it but it seems he has another way of doing this without Lyoko. Turning it off will do nothing but stop us from being able to stop him. I know how you feel Yumi, as much as I thought this was all over as well but this isn't something we can walk away from."

Ulrich looked over at the screen. "Who are you anyways Crystalic? You know so much about Lyoko and us, but we don't even know who you are."

" Ah I will have to explain that tomorrow my dear Ulrich. For I have a plane to catch."  
"Plane? Wait you aren't in France? How'd you get onto Lyoko then?" Odd asked.

"Idiot." She said. " You thought that was really me? One, I would have appeared on the supercomputer's list of saved transfer data just as you all would have. Two if you noticed the movement restrictions I had you would know I was using a controlled avatar. I mean there isn't a scanner here in Japan after all."

" Japan?" Yumi's eyes shot to her.

" Long story like I said I'll explain tomorrow." She said before shutting off the connection.

" Well I guess that means the Lyoko Warriors are back then." Jeremy said.

* * *

**A/n Shesh it took me 3 hours to write a 23 min episode -_- . Im working on drawing Crystalic's Earth and Lyoko designs right now all i have is sketches but none i can use as a character reference atm. **


	2. Crystalic

** Chapter 1.5 Crystalic**

**A/N So just for reference how the timeline works in this Fanfic. Its way off the show since the show first aired in 2003 but this is probably the only major thing I'm changing.**

**1994 is when the computer was shut off and Crystalic was 5 while Aelita was 13**  
**2004 is when the supercomputer is turned on by Jeremy. Crystalic is now 15 and the rest of the gang is 13 with Yumi being 14 (Season 1) **  
**2005 Aelita freed from the supercomputer and the Franz Hopper arc (season 2)**  
**2006 Aelita regains memories. Xana starts destroying sectors and all that crap. William possessed. (season 3)**  
**2006-2007 Replicas, and finally Xana's "Defeat" (season 4)**

**So I guess that makes this fanfic start at 2008 the gang is now around 16 with Yumi and William being 17. Crystalic is now 18 making her the eldest of the group. Kadic is a middle/high school so the gang is still at Kadic Academy.**

**Ulrich, Odd, Aelita, Jeremy, Laura (when she comes in) have the same classes.**  
**Yumi, William, and Crystalic have the same classes.**  
**Aelita and Crystalic are roommates.**

**Also this is the first side chapter not based off a Episode, hence the title. Also shorter as it doesn't have much of a plot other than giving Crystalic a back-story along with her first day at Kadic. I'm using some Japanese terms such as Kouchou-sensei for principal in Crystalic's speech since she grew up in Japan, but since I'm not very familiar with the language, I'll be keeping it to a minimum.**

**Also heres the reference sheet for Crystalic - alexavis deviantart com/art/Crystalic-Landers-Reference-Sheet-360896589 (replace spaces between Alexavis through com with periods)**

**This Chapter is dedicated to Cookie Mafia Boss for being the first reviewer and follower to the story when it wasn't even up for more than 12 hours **

* * *

- Outside the principal's office-

If there was one thing Crystalic hated about school, was the fact she had never been to a real school before. After all, she was home school by monks for 13 years. Or maybe it was the reasoning why she was attending Kadic in the first place. She didn't come for the teachers or schooling, only for the close location to the factory, and something to do other than sit at the factory all day. It wasn't like she had any hobbies to occupy her time other than chores back at the temple she lived at.

So here she was waiting 30 minutes later outside the principal's office. She hadn't seen any students come or go, so Crystalic couldn't understand what was taking him so long to get her information ready. She looked over to the secretary, who returned the look.

" Apologies for the wait Miss Landers, but we have been busy this term." She spoke.

" No I understand. I was just hoping to be able to be able to head to my dorm before classes." Crystalic looked up at the clock in the room reading " 8 am" . 1st period has already started , and she was hoping to run into Aelita and the others before class.

"No! No! You can't die! I thought I had an extra life!" Crystalic heard a male voice behind the door.

"What is he talking about Weber-san?"

The secretary shook her head, obviously ashamed of what she is hearing. The principal shouted again, something about that he almost broke his high score, and realizing what the hold up was, she stormed into the office.

" Excuse me." She closed the door behind her and sat at one of the chairs in front of Delmas' desk.

" Yes, yes. Hold on a minute young lady I just need to save my ga- I mean work." Delmas quickly went back to his game after seeing a rare item and forgot that Crystalic was even there.

"Excuse me!" She said to no avail. Crystalic waited another minute with no hint of him stopping before she reached down and unplugged his computer.

" Hey I was on the last level! Mrs. Weber really you must let me continue these things." He looked up to see a furious student on his hands.

" Pardon my rudeness Kouchou-sensei , but I came all the way here from Japan to attend this school at recommendations of family friends. If you wish to fool around please do so on your own time. I would like to receive my schedule and other information so I can get to class on time with the other students." She boldly stated to Delmas, as if she was the principal speaking to a student.

Turning red from embarrassment, Delmas reached for papers on top of his cluttered desk and handed them to her.

" You will be boarding with Miss Aelita Stones, which is the 2nd to last room on the right end of the girl's hallway. Breakfast is at 7-8 am with lunch at noon and dinner at 5pm. If you have any question ask Yumi Ishiyama who shares the same classes as you, or Miss Stones. Welcome to Kadic, and sorry for the wait." He said.

* * *

-French Class-

Yumi still couldn't believe Xana was back. After all those years of fighting him and to find out he survived really pissed her off. On top of that however, was the strange girl called Crystalic. There was a possibility she was working for Xana, but they really didn't know anything about her yet.

That was when she walked into the classroom. Though she seemed out of place, wearing blue and purple version of a Japanese, sailor style, school uniform. She was carrying two bags, a laptop bag and a

"Ah You must be the new student. " The teacher said. " You're just in time. We were about to present our oral reports on the novel we read last week, but I'll give you a grade to start off if you tell us about yourself."

Crystalic turned to the class and bowed. " Hajimemashite, Landers, Crystalic desu. Douzo yoroshiku." She said and looked to her classmates before realizing her mistake. "Oh I'm sorry that wasn't French was it? Hello my name is Crystalic Landers. It's very nice to meet you all. I was born in America but at the age of 5 my parents were killed in a car crash in which I barely escaped alive. My two rescuers, even though I can't remember them anymore, took me to a temple in Japan where I was raised by monks who were friends of my parents. Well recently I decided to go to school here because a colleague of my parents used to work here and his daughter went here."

William shot his hand up and spoke. " You were raised by monks? What was it like?"

" Well perhaps to you it would have been boring." The class laughed. " But I enjoyed it. There was a lot of chores and work I had to do, and some studies, but they taught me martial arts and many other things I feel will help me later in life. They also gave me a place to stay and for that I will be ever grateful to them."

The teacher clapped. "Alright students lets let her sit down and get back to our assignment. Crystalic you can take the empty seat next to Yumi Ishiyama in the middle."

* * *

-Lunch-

"So Yumi, I hear Crystalic is in your classes huh?" Odd gulfed down spoonfuls of mashed potatoes.  
"Yes Odd. She seems a bit different than the way she acted yesterday though." Yumi shrugged and took a bit of her sandwich.  
"Well she did come from another country and she may be putting up an act for school." Aelita said.  
" Oh hey this will be interesting!" Odd exclaimed suddenly, looking over at Crystalic sitting at Sissi's table.

" Itadakimasu" Crystalic picked up her fork and ate a bite of her lunch when Sissi walked over.  
"Hey new girl! That's our table!" she turned to see Sissi and her two lackeys staring at her.  
" I'm sorry but I didn't realize. I saw an empty table and thought I could sit here."  
Sissi slammed her hands on the table. " Listen here now. I'm the principal's daughter and everyone knows that I sit here every day."  
"Yeah this is Sissi's table." Herve said.  
Crystalic grabbed her stuff and stood up. " Oh I'm sorry Delmas-san and friends. I'll find another table then." She turned to walk away when Nicolas tripped her. Crystalic's entire tray fell to the ground and food landed on Sissi's shoes.  
"AUGH! Now look what you did!" Sissi turned red from anger.  
" Oh my god I'm so sorry!" Crystalic turned to face Sissi and held a bow stance. "Please forgive my ignorance and clumsiness Delmas-san. I take full responsibility and if there is anything I can do to make it up to you, please feel free to ask now."  
Sissi looked surprised. " Well uh… you're not fighting back?"  
"Fight back?" Crystalic looked up. "I was taught to respect others and take responsibility for my mistakes."  
"Um… Nicolas why did you do that!" Sissi yelled at Nicolas, who gave her a look of 'You told me to!' Clean up her tray now!"

Crystalic sighed and sat down with the Lyoko Warriors, seeing no other tables to sit at.  
" More annoying than on a monitor" She mumbled taking a seat next to Odd.  
" Wow you actually got Sissi to be somewhat… nice." Ulrich exclaimed.  
She shrugged. "I didn't really do anything but what I grew up learning."  
" Here Crystalic." Odd shoved his second servings in front of her seat." Since you kinda lost your lunch."  
"Let me get this straight. The bottomless pit is giving away his seconds to someone he barely knows?" Crystalic raised an eyebrow.  
" Yeah I know shocking huh? But anybody who can make Sissi be nice, well nice for her, deserves it."  
Jeremy looked up form his laptop. "So what's the story with you?"

"Pretty much whatever Yumi told you only I'll fill in the gaps. The car crash was caused by a few enemies of my parents and Franz Hopper." Aelita and her locked eyes, knowing similar feelings. " Two people who knew me but I didn't know rescued me and took me to the temple. I was raised there and when I was 15, the same Jeremy here turned on the supercomputer, I received an email from Franz Hopper explaining that he worked with my parents long ago and that the time my parents were killed, he had finished the supercomputer and told me its capabilities. He also explained about him and Aelita hiding from Xana and that she lost her memories and was getting help from friends, aka you guys, on the outside. He asked for my help in sending messages or data to the supercomputer so that Xana couldn't track him and also to watch over you all. Remember Taelia?"

"Wasn't that the girl a few years ago Jeremy swore up and down that she was Aelita come to earth?" Odd laughed.  
" Odd shut it. You have to admit the resemblance was there." Yumi said.  
"You're right. Because she was a specter I created to get a better observation of you guys at school. Unfortunately several attacks on the tower I used resulted in me having to scrap the plan and switch to hacking into your phones and computer along with school cameras."  
They each pulled out their phones and double checked them.  
" Uh yeah sorry I only did it because Franz asked me to." Crystalic looked at Jeremy going crazy checking his laptop. " There aren't any traces Jeremy nor a way for you to lock me out. Regardless, for 3 years of your fight against Xana I watched and helped when I could. Last I talked to Franz was before Xana's so called defeat a few months ago. So the reason I'm here is nothing more to find out why Xana returned, stop him, and prevent him from returning again."

"You were spying on us?" Aelita questioned her.  
"How much do you know?" Ulrich asked.

Crystalic cleared her throat. " Well let's see. Jeremy stay up all night, skips meals and gym class in order to spend hours working on anything dealing with the supercomputer and Xana. He's protective of Aelita, top of all his classes, hates when Odd touches his computer for any reason. He also purposely failed an exam for a special genius' school in order to stay here.

"Aelita was trapped in Lyoko for 10 years, her mother purposely let herself be captured by the men in black in order to allow Franz and Aelita to run and hide. She enjoys music and got a chance to be a DJ before a Subdigitals concert. Worries about Jeremy and stays with him to help with work. She has a death like grip on Mister Puck being her favorite doll and link to her past"

"Ulrich was once a football ( A/n Soccer for those westerners :P) player in order to make his strict father happy. Has vertigo, hates William for , well, obvious reasons. Loves martial arts and sparing with Yumi and is always willing to protect his friends. Then there was the time 3 years ago in the desert sector when Yumi and him almost-"

"No!" Ulrich and Yumi exclaimed at the same time, red from embarrassment.

"Ahem well then. Yumi constantly is annoyed by her little brother Hiroki, her parents are somewhat strict about her schooling and live not too far from Kadic. She passed out from smelling Odd's feet the one time she was in Odd's body. She also acts as the most mature a lot of the time."

"And then there is Odd the clown. Scrawny, excuse me svelte, to pretty much everyone and to which Yolanda reminds him constantly. He plays a little too much video games, loves his dog Kiwi and seeks to annoy Ulrich to death quite a lot. However despite his personality he is loyal to his friends and a great, but goofy, fighter on Lyoko."

Everyone looked at each other in shock.

Jeremy closed his laptop and faced Crystalic. "Well you can probably understand why we don't fully trust you yet, but we all agreed that we really could use your help on Lyoko."

Crystalic nodded. "I don't care if you trust me or not. My only mission is the one Franz Hopper gave me - To help you guys defeat Xana for good this time."


	3. Cortex

**Chapter 2 Cortex**

**Woohoo onto episode 2 already on my quest to catch up with the currently aired episodes ( at the time of writing episode 13 aired a few days ago). Today our heros venture into the new replika known as the Cortex and face deadly traps :o**

* * *

-Lab-

"What the hell is he doing? We've been waiting 10 minutes!" Jeremy paced around the Lab in an irritated mood. "Everytime it's the same thing."

"We'll just start without him. Odd can mooch his way in whenever he shows up." Crystalic said, without looking up from her laptop.

The elevator doors opened and Odd popped in, oblivious to the fact he was late. "Here I am! Guys, I'm onto something huge! Something crazy!"

" A new girlfriend?" Aelita asked.

" No, a pirated copy of Cyberbiker 7, not even out in France! A bargain I cannot miss!" Odd exclaimed, extremely excited.

Crystalic closed her laptop and looked up. "So you're telling us that you came late because of some stupid video game?" She stuck her hand out to Yumi. "You owe me 10 euros."

" What if it was a Xana attack?" Jeremy yelled.

"Well, it isn't, right?" Odd said stupidly.

Ulrich face palmed. " Odd you idiot."

Jeremy sighed and gave up. There was no use continuing the argument. " We'll I called you all here because with Aelita's help we managed to find a signal somewhere in the digital sea, but it's quite far off."

"Xana?" Yumi asked.

"More like his place of rebirth." Jeremy replied. "Well I think…"

Aelita continued on. "Jeremy thinks that if we go there, it will answer a lot of questions. Like how he was reactivated, by whom, or by what."

"Possibly also how to destroy him for good this time." Crystalic added.

"How will we get into the digital sea this time?" Ulrich said.

" By the Skid of course. It's not like you guys can swim there." Crystalic joked.

" You guys were able to reprogram the Skid? That's great!" Odd clapped.

"Well Odd, while you're out playing, some of us are actually working." Jeremy laughed.

Crystalic walked over to the elevator and tapped her foot. "Let's get a move on. Less time we waste the less chance Xana or whoever will find us."

"We will have to do it later. It's late and Jim will kill us if we aren't where we should be." Ulrich tapped her shoulder.

* * *

-Park-

Crystalic was the last one to climb out of the sewer entrance and turned to see who the others had begun to talk to. It was non other than William, who was suspicious as to what they were doing.

"So, we're taking a walk?" He asked.

"Mmm, I love strolling through the sewers! Reminds me of that vacation in …OWW!" Crystalic hit Odd upside the head before he finished.

" On Lyoko?" William supplied. " Do you guys really take me for an idiot or what? You think I don't understand your little games or whispers? Or the sudden addition to the group?" He stared over at Crystalic as he said the last statement. " Or your trips to the factory?"

William turned to Yumi. " Or 'Yumi hey wanna have lunch with me?' ' No sorry I can't today.' Xana is back, isn't he? Did you turn on the supercomputer?"

"It's complicated William." Jeremy explained, or at least attempted to.

" Complicated? It's very simple. How can you fight without my help?"

You mostly proved that you were hot-headed!" Ulrich jumped up. " You're not reliable! You played it solo without thinking. See where it led you!"

"What happened to me could have happened to you too."

Odd spoke next. " But it didn't happen. You spent your time showing off, but you fell into a trap like a beginner."

William was silent for a moment as he looked at everyone's faces. He made up his mind and walked away. Crystalic followed him and grabbed his arm.

" William Dunbar, what is in the past stays in the past. You made your mistake, and while they use that to keep you out it can't hold form forever." She said.

William jerked his arm away. "What would you know, Crystalic Landers? You got accepted right at the start oh good for you! Well congratulations."

"I also knew what I was up against and my own weaknesses. You charged into a fight that left you broken and used. But that isn't the point."

William snapped. "That isn't the point? They let me go to Lyoko first day and I made one mistake that cost me. Now they refuse to even tell me, ' Oh hey by the way William, Xana's back.' In less than a week being here you already gained their trust and are part of the group."

She smirked. "Even they didn't trust me then until I proved myself capable. You can still prove that you're up to the task though."

" What would you know about them in just a week that I don't?"

" A week doesn't compare to the 3 years I've watched in the shadows. Such as the time you were first virtualized and got separated from Aelita? You got caught by the Scyphozoa, or as you called it 'The giant jellyfish thingy.' Xana forced you to destroy Lyoko's core and then took full control of you. You had to fight the Lyoko warriors many times without the strength to fight back, besides the moment his control slipped and you stopped attacking Yumi that one time. It was my duty to keep tabs on the Supercomputer and on those of you connected to it. So believe me when I say that you can gain redemption, only when you prove it and stop forcing yourself in." Crystalic smiled at him and walked off back towards the dorms, leaving William even more confused and curious about her.

* * *

-Kadic-

Crystalic caught up with the group a few minutes later climbing the steps back to classes.

"We'll meet after school?" Ulrich asked Yumi. " Hey are you alright?"

She nodded with a sad face. " Yes but it's just, I think we were a little harsh to William."

"Wait you're the one saying that? Last time you saw William on Lyoko, he was under the influence of Xana! We all fought against him!"

" I know, but Xana is back and things have changed. Even with Crystalic's help we could use his help as well. William has changed. He could really help us this time."

"Who are you and what are you doing in Yumi's body?" Odd asked.

"I agree with Yumi." Crystalic butted in. " Last time he went in without any knowledge of what he was dealing with nor any practice fighting."

"As did the rest of us, you excluded." Ulrich replied.

"That was different. Xana was weak then and didn't have access to the network at the time. Yes both sides made mistakes but William's strength could be a valuable asset to us."

" No they are both right. It's a stupid idea. See you guys later." Yumi turned and walked off, with Crystalic following since they shared classes.

* * *

-Courtyard-

Classes released and students filed out into the courtyard laughing and glad it was over. Odd walked out of the building and went off into the cafeteria with a friend who flagged him down.

"You have it?" Odd whispered.

" Yeah"

"How much?"

"20, it's a bargin"

"Awesome!" Odd handed the money over and stared at the disk he was given.

The kid peeked his head out of the storage room before leaving Odd. Odd proceeded to put the game disk in his backpack when he heard Jim locking the door.

"Hey! Oh man I don't' believe this!" Odd leaned against the door and pulled out his phone. "What no service? Did they put lead in the walls or what?"

-Lab-

"I don't understand." Ulrich said. "He was just there with us."

"He seemed really happy to go back on the Skid." Aelita added.

"Well too bad you're leaving without him." Jeremy said, fed up with Odd's lateness.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Yumi asked.

"I'm having trouble getting the signal. It is rather weak and unstable. No way we're losing the singal because of that idiot, Odd." Jeremy angrily said.

" If Odd finally shows up then we can virtualize him straight to the Skid's location with the new upgrade to it." Crystalic said. " The priority is to reach this signal and retrieve as much information as we can."

They all turned for the elevator and Jeremy whispered to Aelita, "Be careful."

_Transfer Yumi, Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Aelita_

_Scanner Yumi, Scanner Ulrich, Scanner Aelita_

_Virtualization._

The trio landed in the Arena.

"I'm sending Crystalic now."

_Transfer Crystalic_

_Scanner Crystalic_

_Virtualization._

* * *

-Lyoko-

Just like each of the others, Crystalic forgot about the fall and landed straight on her butt.

"Oww!" She said.

"Oh yeah this is your first time actually on Lyoko isn't it? We thought you knew about the fall." Aelita laughed.

" Oh I knew I just didn't realize it til last minute." Crystalic sighed and ran off to the elevator with the others.

The elevator slowly brought them into the Skid hanger, giving them the chance to gaze at the Skid once again.

" I forgotten how beautiful it is." Yumi exclaimed.

Aelita nodded. " Yeah"

" Yeah too bad Odd isn't here" Ulrich said.  
- Kadic-

William walked past the storage room Odd was locked in eating pudding. He turned around when he heard calls for help and walked over to the door.

"Odd?"

"William is that you?" Odd sighed in relief. Somebody had managed to hear him and soon he would be running off to the Skid on the mission, that is if he hadn't already missed the start. "Get me out of here! I'm stuck!"

William quietly laughed. " No I can't believe it. So, how does it feel to get trapped like a beginner?"

"Ha ha, I'm dying of laughter. Jokes aside, go find Jim fast. He has the key. It's urgent, the others are waiting for me."

Williams smiled turned into a grin. This was his chance to go to Lyoko in Odd's place. "Xana attack?"

"No but it's still urgent."

"Ok I'll see what I can do. Don't worry I'll hurry." William shook his head as if saying no and walked off.

-Lyoko-

Aelita shifted the Skid into horizontal mode.

"It hasn't changed." Ulrich spoke.

Yumi agreed. "It's weird to be here again."

"I must say Jeremy, you and Aelita really outdid yourselves. The Skid is much cooler in person than over a monitor."

"Thanks. Aelita, head to 170 to go find a hub." Jeremy instructed.

"Alright. Turbo propellers and auxiliary engines engaged." With a few button presses, the Skid roared to life and took off into the digital sea. She located the hub Jeremy said. "Watch out, high-speed acceleration in 3... 2... 1..." The skid shifted back into vertical position and launch downward into the hub, shooting out of another hub no long after.

"Jeremy, we're here, but I don't see anything."

Crystalic pulled up an interface in her skid pod, which happen to be Odd's actually. " The signals weak but we are in the right area. Something should come into view shortly."

* * *

-Lab-

The elevator opened and Jeremy didn't look over.

"Odd you're such a drag. Now you arrive!" Jeremy whipped his hands up like he was surprised.

" Sorry."

"William? No, I don't have time for this, we're in the middle of…"

William cut Jeremy off and pointed at the monitors. "A mission. I can see that. Just here to say Odd couldn't come. He had a minor setback."

-Digital sea-

"Jeremy I can see something up ahead now." Aelita said. "It looks like Lyoko, but less nice. A kind of Cortex." she looked around. "I see a portal."

"If it's similar to Lyoko, it shouldn't be difficult to decrypt." Jeremy activated a program and typed a bunch of codes, finally entering 25062003 before the portal opened. " Viola, it's open."

The skid floated inside and up out of the digital sea.

"There's a sector like Lyoko, but it's strange." Aelita said.

" It looks almost like sector 5, only not in a spherical form. There's ring's of platforms circling what seems to be the core." Crystalic described.

"That core must be the mystery of Xana's return." Jeremy guessed.

Aelita parked the skid along the edge of a platform and disembarked everyone. Crystalic summoned up her Overdisk while Jeremy virtualized the Overbike and Overwing.

"I'll start a superscan" he said.

Ulrich smiled at Aelita and pointed her over the the Overbike. "This way princess."

" There are no monsters in sight but be careful."

The group took off on their vehicles towards the core. For a few minutes the Cortex was peaceful until a strange sound sung throughout the area and the Cortex itself seemed to move and change.

"Watch out guys!" Crystalic yelled. She placed her hand up to one of her ear pieces and made her interface visor appear. " The area is moving! It's similar to sector 5's labyrinth!"

The flooring ahead of them moved, leaving a straight hole into the digital sea. Crystalic and Ulrich barely stopped in time to avoid it but Yumi flew past and into a wall which moved in front of her.

"Yumi!" Ulrich yelled. "What the hell is this?"

"What happened?" Jeremy asked.

"The Cortex's pathways changed and Yumi flew into a wall and was devirtualized!" Crystalic explained, looking around to make sure they didn't get caught in one as well.

"Yumi isn't reappearing in the scanner."

"Wait what does that mean?" William asked.

"She's stuck in a kind of virtual limbo. The Cortex is interfering with the Skid. I've lost a lot of data in the network there." Jeremy spoke fast in a panic.

"Wait, I don't understand your gibberish there. Is Yumi alive or not?"

"I don't know. Aelita you have to get to the core of the Cortex. Yumi is stuck." Jeremy said, and the remaining trio locked eyes with each other in a slight panic. "We need to recover her digital signature. It's the only way to bring her back."

Ulrich revved up the Overbike and sped off, with Crystalic not far behind.

"Digital Signature in the Nucleus, got it." Aelita repeated.

The trio continued forward through the Cortex, which seemed calm for the time being. The reached a pathway where a chuck dropped down. Ulrich, not able to stop in time, flew off.

Aelita activated her wings and flew down trying to catch him. "Ulrich!"

Ulrich looked at her frightened before he hit the ground, Aelita barely able swoop up to save herself in time.

"Jeremy we lost Ulrich!" Crystalic flew the Overdisk downward to meet up with Aelita.

* * *

-Lab-

" This can't be, Ulrich is stuck as well!" Jeremy was going through every piece of data on the supercomputer.

William turned around and headed for the elevator. "Just tell me how to get to the Cortex!"

"I'll bring you there directly, the Skid will at as a relay."

William nodded and ran into a scanner the moment the elevator doors opened.

_Transfer William_

_Scanner William_

_Virtualization._

* * *

- Cortex-

William landed near the Skid and gazed at the view of the new area.

"William, don't waste time. The girls are west of your position. I'll send you the Overboard." Jeremy said.

"No" William looked at his hands. "I have something better than that. I think I kept a little souvenir from my time with Xana" His right hand glowed with a purple smoke, and he activated his super smoke ability and took off.

* * *

-Kadic-

Odd was sitting on the floor banging his head against the door out of boredom. He expected William to be back with Jim by now but it was taking a long time. Suddenly the door opened and he fell backwards, staring up at Jim.

"Della Robbia, is it you who's making this racket? What are you doing in there?"

Odd stood up. "William sure took his time to tell you!"

"William?" Jim looked confused. "Who, Dunbar? He wasn't the one who told me."

"Then how did you know that.." Odd stopped and realized what Jim just said. "Oh I don't believe it!"

Jim yelled at Odd as he tried to run off. " Wait a minute Della Robbia! Pick a number: 2, 4, 6, 8?" Jim pulled out a notepad.

"Later sir!"

"Sold, Della Robbia! 10 hours of detention!"

* * *

-Cortex-

Crystalic and Aelita flew over the landscape taking a straight detour to the core.

"There it is!" Crystalic pointed out in the distance.

"This is where we'll find the data to rescue Yumi and Ulrich?" Aelita asked.

" Yes. Hopefully it won't be well guarded."

They landed in front of the entrance to the core and a krabe virtualized in front of them. Aelita shot a couple of energy fields at it, only to have them bounce off. She leaped on top of the krabe and flew off around the outer surface of the core, only to be shot and landed back on the ground.

" Aelita get the hell outta there!" Jeremy yelled.

The krabe landed on top of her and prepared to shoot the final shot when William jumped out of super smoke and stabbed his sword straight into the top of it's body. He leaped down before it was destroyed and smiled at Aelita, who proceeded to launch a energy field at him.

" Woah Aelita stop! It's just William." Crystalic flew over to the two. "Though I can't blame ya. If the eye of Xana was there, you'd look just like you did before when Xana controlled you."

"His super smoke still makes me nervous." Aelita shivered at the memory and then smiled back.

"Let's go. " William pointed at the entrance and the trio proceeded to the door.

* * *

-Lab-

"WHERE IS THAT BASTARD!" Odd came charging into the Lab demanding of Jeremy. "That filthy animal! If I find him, I'll…"

"Odd, William is in the Cortex, we have a problem." Jeremy didn't bother to asked Odd what happened due to being focused on the mission at hand.

"He took my place too?" Odd grew even madder. Then he calmed down and asked, "What's the Cortex?"

"Hurry up! Ulrich and Yumi are in danger!"

Odd ran into the elevator and spun around to Jeremy. "Oh yeah? Well William is also in danger now!"

* * *

-Cortex-

Aelita placed her hands against the doorway trying to open it. William smashed his sword against the door in hopes that would work.

" Not all doors work that way William." Crystalic rolled her eyes. A quake occurred, sending the three on the ground as the door opened up. " Huh…"

"That's it! The path is cle…" Aelita was cut off by 3 krabes shooting form behind.

William shoved Aelita into the core. "Go on. We'll handle it here!"

Crystalic materialized her Bladed Tonfas. "Lets see what you can do William." She ran off at one krabe.

"Gladly." He shifted into super smoke and took off.

Inside the core, Aelita looked back at the two before continuing on. She walked onto a hexagonal designed platform, which teleported her up to the main platforms surrounding the inner core.

Outside, William deflected a few lasers before jumping on top of one of the krabes, but had to flip off when another shot at him there. Crystalic back-flipped and summoned a pillar of ice.

" Ice barrage!" The pillar split into smaller fragments, which flew at a krabe and punctured it armor destroying it.

Willaim lured the remaining 2 krabes to the bottom of a chunk of the Cortex. He looked down at them before he hear Odd behind him.

"William you traitor!" Odd flew up behind William on the overboard and jumped off to tackle him. "You shithead!"

William threw Odd to the ground and raised his sword. "Oh so you finally got out?"

"Hey you guys." The boys turned to look at Crystalic, who was tapping her foot. " Hate to break up the fight, but we still have some krabes to deal with."

"Crystalic's right. Settle it later" Jeremy said.

By that point the krabes had climbed up to where they were and resumed firing lasers.

" You're not getting off that easy." Odd cat leaped over to the krabes.

Back inside the Core of the Cortex, Aelita flew over to the terminal inside.

"Alright Aelita. Log into the terminal and recover Yumi's and Ulrich's digital signatures. Don't waste time!"

Aelita placed her hand on the terminal and activated it. A huge interface appeared in front of her.

"Jeremy there's something strange."

"Don't waste time!" Jeremy yelled.

Back outside, Odd flew overhead of a krabe and fired a round of arrows at it, while William sliced the leg off the other one. Both krabes devirtualized. In a surprise attack then, Odd tackled William once more.

" Now we can settle the score!" Odd said.

Crystalic shook her head as William stood up. "Calm down, okay?" He said.

Odd pumped a fist at him. "In your dreams! I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Odd stop!"

"Come on!" Odd taunted.

The strange sound sung again in the Cortex.

" Guys the Cortex is moving again!" Crystalic ran over to them.

"Not only that." William pointed over at the Core. "The entrance is closing!"

"Oh no Aelita!" Jeremy said. "Watch out something's happening!"

The boys shoved two ends of the doorway, trying to hold it open as much as they could.

" Deep Freeze!" Crystalic tossed her Bladed Tonfas at different ends of the doorway and ice consumed the doorway, slowing it down.

"Crystalic you just lost 40 life points! What's going on?" Jeremy asked.

Crystalic struggled to hold her concentration on the Deep Freeze. " It's one of my powers that consumes life points when I use it. Just worry about Aelita!"

"Aelita!" William shouted. "Step on it!"

Aelita was fixated on the images appearing all over the huge interface. She turned to leave when an image of her father appeared on the screen.

"Aelita it's ok hurry out of there now!" Jeremy said.

"Papa?" she stood hypnotized by the picture.

"Get the hell outta there!"

"Please Aelita hurry!" Crystalic's spell broke and the door continued to close. William stuck his sword into it, only to have it devirtualized.

At the last second Aelita finally flew out to safety. Odd smiled and put his paws against his hips. "Nice place here." He looked around.

Yumi and Ulrich appeared in the scanners and sat next to each other smiling, glad to be ok.

* * *

-Factory later-

The gang sat around the Lab discussing what had happened.

"Are you sure that was your father?" Jeremy asked Aelita. She had just finished explaining what she saw.

"I don't understand. What does he have to do with the Cortex?" She looked at Jeremy worried.

" Probably nothing but who knows. Your father was a good man Aelita, he can't be responsible of Xana's return or the Cortex." Crystalic said, trying to comfort her.

" Listen Aelita. I will try and figure out why his picture was there." Jeremy held her hand for a moment.

"And what are you going to do about me?" William broke the subject.

"Besides the fact you left Odd locked in a storage room for an hour, I think you did pretty well." Crystalic high fived him.

" Yeah I'm still mad by the way." Odd leaned against Jeremy's chair.

Jeremy nodded. "Without you the mission could have gone poorly with just Crystalic and Aelita at the time." Ulrich nodded, for once he would agree. After all William helped save him. "We discovered Xana's lair. In short, we'll think about it."

"What? That's all you're telling him?!" Odd was astonished by Jeremy's reply. William just grinned at Odd. "Don't you wanna kiss him too? Hey Crystalic tell me you're on my side!"

Crystalic walked into the elevator and waved. " Nope I'm staying out of this argument. You guys decide on your own!" The elevator closed and she was gone.

"That's alright. A simple 'thanks' will suffice." William smiled.

* * *

-Kadic-

Jim slapped a 'do not enter' sign on the storage door Odd was in earlier.

" The next one who comes within 10 meters of this door gets 2 hours of detention." Jim said. " Uh I mean the other way around. 2 meters and you get 10 hours of detention. Well you understood me!"

The students he was informing shook their heads and walked out. Odd nearby heard everything and flagged over William.

"William!"

William walked over prepared for anything. " So what's your weapon this time? A fencing foil or a matchlock pistol?"

"No we aren't having a duel, that would be stupid. Just wanted to tell you that Yumi's waiting for you. She has something to tell you."

"Yumi? Where?"

"In the lunchroom."

William shook Odds hand and they both agreed there were no hard feelings. He walked into the lunchroom near Jim.

"Dunbar, you want to get smart with me?" Jim yelled. "10 hours of detention!"

Odd outside laughed. "That's one good thing done!"

Crystalic tapped him on the shoulder. "You know that wasn't nice, even if it was payback."

" Hey he deserved it! He left me locked in there for an hour!"

Crystalic sighed. " You know, if there's anybody I don't understand in the group, it's you and your mind."

"I could show you how I think sometime if you want." Odd joked and slightly flirted.

Crystalic's eyes went wide and she turned away. "I'm walking away now!"

"Oh come on take a joke!"


	4. Spectromania

**Chapter 3 Spectromania**

**And here comes the spectre chasing fun part. Oh boy this should be interesting :D**

**Also I just went and did some rereading of the posted chapters and realized " Oh hey. Fanfiction hates links" so you'll have to do some fancy work but**

**Alexavis deviantart com /art/Crystalic-Landers-Reference-Sheet-360896589**

**Just replace the spaces between Alexavis through com with periods and remove the space between com and /art**

**And if that doesn't work im posting it to my profile I know it will work there.**

* * *

-Kadic-

It was break time between classes and the gang was hanging out chatting about the usual things. Aelita and Yumi were chatting along with Ulrich and Odd, while Crystalic and Jeremy sat with their laptops glancing up now and then. They were unsuspecting of the young boy wandering up to them. He walked up to Aelita and grabbed her into a tight hug.

"Woah, Aelita you're into little 5th graders now? I hope you have a good lawyer." Odd leaned back against a brick wall grinning.

Aelita looked in a daze. "I feel weird.."

"Hey that's enough now!" Ulrich reached over to the boy and shoved him off.

At first the boy seemed to walk away, until he turned back around and latched onto Yumi.

" Is he crazy or what?" Yumi said, struggling out of his grip.

Crystalic tapped away at her laptop, pulling up a super scan. The scan beeped in response, confirming her thoughts. "That's not a student guys!"

Jeremy caught on to what she was saying. "It's a spectre! Guys it's a spectre!" He pulled the spectre off Yumi and the group broke into a run.

They ran and locked themselves in a classroom, barricading the door with a broom. The spectre stood outside staring at them, waiting for the moment to attack again.

"He's out there, but not moving." Odd peeped out the window on the door.

"My vision's all blurry." Aelita said.

"I feel sick, and I'm having trouble breathing." Yumi added.

Ulrich held his head in agreement to their pains. "My ears are buzzing."

Odd looked at them confused. "I feel fine. Are you guys sure? That little angel-faced 5th grader is a spectre?"

Crystalic slapped the back of his head. "You didn't get touched by the spectre like they did. We need to get out of here and deactivate the tower without either of the four of you guys getting touched again." She threw down the gym bag she always carried and started unzipping it. "I'll stay here and keep it distracted."

"Are you sure that will work? It's after the codes so who's to say it will even follow you." Ulrich said.

"Good point… Well then Odd since you're the only one feeling well you get to be a part of the fun." She pulled out a pair of Bladed Tonfas, much plainer than the ones on Lyoko.

"Are you crazy?! What if somebody sees you?" Jeremy gasped.

She shrugged and put them back,. " Good point. We are still at school."

"You carry Bladed Tonfas with you?" Yumi raised an eyebrow. She was wondering what was always in that bag.

"Hey I have a license." Crystalic paused and thought. " To keep them concealed and only use them during training or protection. Touché it's not like Kouchou-sensei would understand a demented 5th grade spectre attacking."

"Koochow sensey?" Odd asked.

"Um I believe you call him the Principal? Delmas? Never mind that, just stick to the plan."

Jeremy sighed. "Odd can stay as long as he promises not to get touched by the spectre. We lost enough codes as it is."

"Okay!" Odd clapped his fists together and peeked out the door again. "He's still there."

"Good, we'll go through the back window."

"Go ahead. We can take care of the little snot!"

* * *

-Sewers-

"Ulrich are you ok?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich walked through the sewer placing his hand against the wall with every step. "Still dizzy. It's definatly my inner ear."

"What about you girls?" Jeremy looked to each of them.

"Apart from feeling nauseous, I'm fine." Yumi clutched her stomach.

"How are we going to be on Lyoko?" Aelita sighed.

"On Lyoko, you're virtual. So in theory, it shouldn't affect you."  
"I hope, because throwing up on Lyoko would be weird." Yumi grunted through the feeling.

* * *

-Kadic-

Odd sighed, still leaning against the door. The spectre was still outside staring and they had to come up with a plan to deal with him.

"How about you run out and be bait while I come up from behind and smack him around?" Crystal offered.

"No way! I want to be part of the fun too!"

Crystalic spotted Jim outside the door noticing the broom. "Well we have to do something cause that door's gonna have to open here.

Jim walked over and tried to open the door. "Damn it!" He pounded his fist on the window. "Della Robbia, remove that broom!"

The spectre walked away for a moment in the background. Odd shrugged and took the broom off the door.

"Run!" Odd ducked under Jim's arm and bolted.

"Landers! Explain this mess!" Jim turned his attention to Crystalic now.

She bowed and ran after Odd. "Sumimasen deshita Morales-sensei!"

Jim sighed. He could understand Odd running, but the new girl? At least she had the respect to apologise.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich virtualized in the desert sector shortly after leaving Odd and Crystalic.

"So, are you still feeling the effects of the spectre?" Jeremy asked.

The trio looked at each other.

"No" Aelita smiled.

"Me neither." Yumi raised her hands.

"You were right Jeremy." Ulrich looked up as if to look at Jeremy. "Our problems disappeared."

"The benefits of being virtual." Jeremy replied.

The Overwing and Overbike appeared next to them. Ulrich and Yumi jumped on their respective vehicles while Aelita activated her wings.

"Which direction?" Ulrich revved up his bike.

"Straight ahead to the east."

"Jeremy, call Odd and Crystalic and tell them there is an activated tower on Lyoko." Aelita instructed.

Jeremy picked up his phone. "I'm pretty sure they know by now but I'll let you know what they say."

* * *

-Kadic-

Odd panted and hid behind a brick pillar along with Crystalic.

"Man I'm glad Jim isn't following."

Crystalic collapsed on the ground. "Never mind Morales-sensei. We still have the spectre to deal with."

Odd's phone rang and he reached into his pocket to grab it until the spectre rounded the corner chasing the sound.

"What's wrong? A lack of affection? Did your mom abandon you on the side of the road?"

"Odd this is no time for jokes!" Crystalic kicked the spectre off of Odd. "You stay away Xana!"

"Crystalic I'm fine! He's just a crazy, little blonde." Odd laughed.

"No that's you." She got into a fighting stance.

The spectre stared at Odd as he grabbed his head in pain. Crystalic rolled her eyes and started pulling Odd away in a different direction.

* * *

-Lyoko-

A laser from a tarantula almost hit Ulrich before he jumped off his bike to dodge.

"Jeremy is the tower still far off and did you reach Odd and Crystalic?" Yumi called out, jumping off the Overwing as well.

"Odd isn't picking up, and I don't know Crystalic's number." Jeremy replied. "Watch out, two bloks are coming up behind you."

Aelita and Yumi turned around. Aelita jumped into the air and charged up energy fields, while Yumi pulled out her fans.

"I'll take care of the tarantula." Ulrich ran off towards it and pulled out his swords. He leaped on top of the tarantula dodging another laser, and sliced the top of it's body. The tarantula shook him off and stomped its legs at him, but ended up getting sliced once more and destroyed.

"I have a third blok signaled on my screen, but I don't know where it's coming from." Just as Jeremy said that, the third blok walked up to Ulrich and devirtualized him.

* * *

-Lab-

Ulrich appeared in the scanner and held his head for a moment, still feeling the effects of the spectre. He took the elevator up to the lab to hear Jeremy on the phone with Odd.

"Finally, Odd. Where are you?"

"It's a spectre Jeremy!"

Behind Odd, Jeremy could hear Crystalic say "Odd was a idiot like always and got touched!"

"Shut up! It's one of Xana's bloodsuckers! We can't shake him! I'm hallucinating!"

"Next time listen to me!" Crystalic yelled.

Jeremy shook his head in disappointment. "Calm down Odd. I'll call you back." He turned to Ulrich. "Can you make it to the school alone?"

"Well somebody has to help that idiot and obviously he won't listen to Crystalic." Ulrich ran back into the elevator.

Jeremy turned his attention back to the computer. "Bad news girls, Odd was touched. I don't know what side affects he has but he is seriously freaking out."

* * *

-Lyoko-

"Alright Jeremy. We'll try to do this as quickly as possible." Aelita replied. She looked over at Yumi. "Yumi look out behind you!"

Yumi smiled and threw her fan backwards, destroying the blok trying to sneak up. "We're too exposed here. We have to move." She ran off to the direction of the tower with Aelita not far behind in the air and the remaining bloks on the ground.

* * *

-Kadic-

Odd stumbled out of a hallway filled with students. He walked slowly enough that the spectre came up behind him and grabbed him again.

"Enough already!" Odd threw him against a wall.

Jim, who had just exited outside, saw this. "Della Robbia! Do you wanna get written up? Attacking a boy smaller than you even. This isn't like you!" Jim turned to the spectre. "Are you alright?"

The spectre took off without a word and Jim followed in pursuit.

Crystalic appeared from behind a brick wall. "You alright?"

Odd looked at her funny. "What?" he yelled.

"I said are you alright?"

He shook his head. "I can't hear you!"

Ulrich ran up to them. "Shesh what's with all the shouting?"

"He's gone deaf Ulrich." Crystalic answered.

"What?!" Odd yelled again, only this time was smacked by Crystalic.

She pointed at him, then to Ulrich and covered her eyes and folded into a ball. "Ulrich and I are going to hide?" Odd asked. She nodded and pointed off to where the spectre went and cracked her knuckles. "And you are going to take care of the spectre?"

* * *

-Lyoko-

One of the two bloks shot Aelita out of the air and she landed on a sand dune.

"Yumi be careful of Aelita. She's the only one who can deactivate the tower!" Jeremy reminded her.

Yumi tossed a fan at one of the bloks. "I'm doing my best. Don't you think I know that?" The blok she hit was destroyed and the fan rebounded back to her.

"Ulrich?" Jeremy received a call.

"I found them Jeremy! Odd and I are going to find a place to hide. Crystalic's taking care of the spectre right now."

Yumi was shot by the last blok.

"Yumi!" Aelita cried.

"Don't worry about me!" Yumi waved over to her, "Take care of the tower!"

Aelita ran over the sand dune with the blok in pursuit. She stopped mid run and looked at the tower.

"I see the tower Jeremy!" She was devirtualized at that moment by the blok.

Yumi would have kicked herself if she could. "What are we going to do now Jeremy?"

"It'll take 12 hours before Aelita can return to Lyoko." Jeremy said.

"So it's over?"

"Yeah, it's over. I'll devirtualized you now."

"No!" Aelita walked up behind Jeremy form the elevator. "Yumi has to stay on Lyoko. Yumi can you hear me?"

"Sorry Aelita, I failed to protect you." Yumi apologized.

"Listen Yumi. I want you to try to deactivate the tower."

"But you're the only one who can!"

"I have a hunch. You might as well try.

"Yes but Odd and Ulrich's codes could be stolen. It'd be better to find them and hole up here." Jeremy tried to persuade her.

"Yumi do you trust me?" Aelita ignored Jeremy.

"Yes. I'm going to try. Jeremy are you with us?" Yumi asked.

Aelita stared at Jeremy with pleading eyes before he gave in. "Fine I'll explain. You'll need to go through where Aelita went."

"Got it!" Yumi jumped and skidded down the sand dune with fans in hand. The blok ahead of her spun in victory before noticing her. It stopped and resumed fire on Yumi. She leaped over the blok and tossed both fans into it's body, doing nothing more than knocking it over before she jumped on the Overwing and took off.

* * *

-Kadic-

The spectre finally lost Jim and before it could resume following Odd, It was greeted by Crystalic.

"Why hello Xana it's a pleasure to see you. Sorry Odd isn't here right now so you'll have to make due with me." She smiled.

The spectre raised it's hand and fired a bolt of electricity at her. She quickly dodged and tossed one of her Bladed Tonfa at it straight from the bag. She grabbed the other one from her bag and attacked him head on. The spectre, unaffected by the attack, released another bolt of electricity at her knocking her out this time.

Odd and Ulrich, who were looking down from their dorm room, saw this and barricaded the door preparing for the spectre to come after them.

"I hope she's alright." Odd said. "Oh no he spotted us.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Yumi approached the tower without realizing the blok from moments ago was behind her.

"So what do I do? Place my hand against it like you do?"

"Yes" Aelita replied. "Saying to yourself you want to go in. It's intuitive."

Yumi nodded but was shot off the Overwing by the blok. She looked to the tower and back at the blok before running off. She looked back once and leaped at the tower before another laser could hit her.

"I did it!" Yumi said after landing inside.

"Good now all you have to do now is walk to the middle of the platform and will yourself to levitate to the next platform." Aelita smiled at Jeremy, who smiled back in relief.

Yumi stepped to the center and floated up. She landed on the top platform and the interface appeared. Yumi placed her hand on it.

_Yumi_

_Code_

_Lyoko_

* * *

-Kadic-

The spectre exploded before it could push the door in.

The boys looked at each other astonished.

"The buzzing is gone!" Ulrich sighed in relief.

"Buzzing? You're lucky, I'm deaf." Odd paused for a moment and gave himself a mental self backhand. "Or I was…"

Ulrich picked up his phone to hear Jeremy on the other end.

"You guys missed it. Aelita was devirtualized and Yumi deactivated the tower in her place."

"Hang on I'll put you on speaker." Ulrich pressed a button on his phone and held it out for Odd.

"It was Yumi who deactivated the tower! I think it's because of the codes you guys have in you." The two boys heard typing. "Wait… I think there's a second tower!"

At the factory Aelita looked over at the holomap's display of the second tower.

"A second tower? Was it's signal hidden by the first?"

"It seems that way. It was a ruse by Xana. Bad news boys. Another tower is active"

"Does that mean another spectre?" Odd said. You could hear the disappointment in his voice. "I'm not leaving this room! We'll order pizza and live in here if we have to!"

"Odd, I'm sorry, but you're the only one who can deactivate it. Aelita and Ulrich were already devirtualized and Yumi is alone. You're the only other one who can deactivate it unless Crystalic can, if Yumi gets devirtalized."

Ulrich and Odd's eyes widened and they looked at each other. "Crystalic!" In the midst of the spectre disappearing and the bad news they had forgotten she was passed out.

* * *

-Lab-

Aelita pulled out her laptop. "I'll analyze the tower and see if I can find a visual on the spectre. You take care of Yumi."

Jeremy nodded and unmuted the mic. "Yumi, you need to leave again. Unfortunately there's a blok outside. I'll launch a program so you can see it."

"Rodger Jeremy." She descended down and looked through the hole Jeremy materialized in front of her. She leaped onto the blok and destroyed it with her fans.

"Perfect now the second tower isn't far."

* * *

-Kadic-

The boys snuck out of their room on the look out for the spectre. They saw the coast was clear and ran out to the courtyard.

"Ouch. Looks like she got zapped hard." Odd picked Crystalic up and carried her on his back.

Ulrich pulled one of her Bladed Tonfa out of a tree. "Yeah, but it looks like she put up a fight."

"Let's get to the factory fast and hope she wakes up. Cause, umm well it's kind of weird to carry a sleeping girl on my back." Odd repositioned her to make it easier to carry her, only to blush when her breasts pressed against his shoulders. His cell phone rang and he struggled to reach it. "Yes Jeremy?"

"We have a visual on the spectre. Well how do I put it? The spectre is Ulrich, or at least looks like him."

Odd looked over at Ulrich, who asked who called. "Uh tell Yumi that Crystalic and I are coming."

"Odd?" Ulrich asked when he saw his friend in fear.

"I'm going alone with her!" Odd took off running as best as he could.

Ulrich ran after him, only to stop when he saw why he was fearful. A spectre that looked just like him turned the corner and chased after Ulrich.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Yumi rode through a canyon and was shot at by a krabe. She flipped in the air trying to dodge the laser and ended up driving straight into a pillar. Yumi turned and looked at the krabe before running away.

"Yumi, you're down to 20 life points. You can't take anymore hits or it's over." Jeremy called out.

"I know that!" Yumi said angrily. "Where the hell is Odd? Did he decide to stop for a cup of tea with Crystalic or what?"

"Jeremy we're in place! Virtualize us!" Odd called out from the scanner room.

"Yumi. They just arrived. I'm sending them now." Jeremy replied.

_Transfer Odd. Transfer Crystalic_

_Scanner Odd Scanner Crystalic_

_Virtualization!_

Odd landed in the desert sector and looked up. Crystalic virtualized above him still unconscious and landed on him.

Of course at bad timing she woke up and noticed Odd accidentally grabbed her chest with one of his paws and took it the wrong way.

"ODD!" She screamed and kicked him onto the Overboard and tossed it.

"It was an accident! I swear!" Odd tried to explain.

"Shut the hell up Odd!"

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked.

"Jeremy I.." Odd didn't get to finish before his lips were frozen shut.

"Nothing!" Crystalic answer. She summoned the Overdisk and flew over to him. In a low monotone voice she whispered, "You speak of this to anyone and I'll make sure Rosa-san doesn't give you seconds for a month."

Odd shivered in response and nodded.

* * *

-Kadic-

Ulrich ran back into his dorm room and shoved Odd's bed in front of the door once again. The spectre outside pounded against the door, and Ulrich could barely hold him back.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Yumi made it to the end of the canyon finally and looked up at the activated tower, which was on a floating piece of land above her. She heard the krabe behind her and turned to fight it.

"We're here!" Odd shouted. The krabe's attention turned to him until Yumi's fan bounced off it's head. The krabe shook it off and fire at her, devitalizing her instantly.

"Yumi!" Odd fired a barrage of arrows and destroyed it, too late to save Yumi.

"What do we do now?" Odd looked at Crystalic, who shrugged in response and destroyed a second krabe trying to sneak up behind her.

"If Yumi can do it, why can't you?" Jeremy said.

Odd flew over to the tower and banged his head against the tower trying to jump in.

"Are you sure I can?" Odd yelled.

"Idiot…" Crystalic slapped him. "You have to will yourself in. It's not like water you can just jump into!"

"If it's that easy why don't you do it?" Odd replied.

"Because it doesn't work that way with me Odd. I don't have Xana's source codes and I'm unable to deactivate a tower right now."

"Right now? So you could?" Odd raised an eyebrow.

"Yes but there's things I have to set up that I can't do right now." Jeremy heard Crystalic say. He could tell she was hiding something but didn't have time to ask.

Odd gave up fighting it. "I want to enter, I want to enter." He repeated until the tower sucked him in.

Crystalic phased through the tower wall and walked to the center of the platform pulling him forward and then upward. "I sure hope Ulrich is ok right now."

"I never want to do that again!" Was the only thing Odd said.

Crystalic landed on the top platform and looked around not noticing Odd with her. "Did you get lost?"

She looked down to see Odd clinging to the underside of the platform. " Oh ha ha. Very funny." He climbed up and jumped when the interface appeared.

"Now just place your hand on the interface and enter the code."

"Oh I get it now. It's really easy!"

"This coming from the guy who couldn't make it through the wall."

"Quiet you two!" Jeremy yelled. "Odd hurry!"

"Alright!" He placed his paw against the interface.

_Odd_

_Code_

"Now enter the code…" He mumbled and tapped on the interface a few times.

_Lyoko_

* * *

-Kadic-

The spectre shoved open the door and sent Odd's bed flying. Ulrich collapsed in the middle of the floor and stared into the spectre's eyes. The spectre reached it's hand out and before it could steal Ulrich's codes, it exploded into data and disappeared.

* * *

-Jeremy's room later-

The four code bearers plugged in their new wristwatches Jeremy gave them.

"I call them Transwatches. They can measure the number of codes that you have inside you." Jeremy pulled up a program on his computer.

"The codes are hidden in their bodies so these Transwatches are able to find and measure them correct?" Crystalic asked.

"Correct."

"Super. Just great." Odd moaned looking at the screen. "I'm the one who lost the most."

The screen pulled up the information from the Transwatches and relayed it on the screen.

**Aelita - 92%**

**Odd - 77%**

**Yumi - 93%**

**Ulrich - 90%**

"I've given a lot of myself today." Odd joked.

"Like abandoning me, for example. If I was the spectre I would have jumped you a long time ago. But I didn't and you ran off with Crystalic on your back!" Ulrich said.

Crystalic backhanded Odd for what seemed like the millionth time that day. "YOU WHAT?"

"You were unconscious! I had to get you to the factory somehow!"

"So you could do what you did while I was unconscious!"

"I said I was sorry!"

Crystalic tossed him on Jeremy's bed and picked up her bags. "Whatever if you need me I'll be in my dorm." She stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"What did you do Odd?" Yumi asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Odd mumbled The famous words of Jim.

Jeremy's computer beeped.

"Ah here's the Xana/Power ratio " Jeremy said, trying to change the subject. "70%"

"And when Xana's at 100%?" Yumi wondered.

"He will be more powerful than he has ever been." Aelita replied. "He will control the entire global network. And nobody, not even us, can stop him."

* * *

**That's the most we're getting from this chapter that April fools dayish. I had to pick on Crystalic and Odd a little bit XD. Stay tuned for the next chapter :D  
**


	5. Ochophobia

**Chapter 3.5 Ochophobia**

**Ochophobia, the fear of vehicles, was the perfect title for this side chapter. Time to get a little into Crystalic's past now! Why is she afraid of them you ask? Well read on and find out. I didn't wake up at 2 am to write this for nothing after all XD**

**Insert terrible movie promo and Xana attack down below.**

* * *

-Kadic-

The past week was what Ulrich would call a "Drag" for Crystalic. It all started on Monday when Odd discovered she was another "Jeremy" and avoiding fun for the sake of Lyoko and Xana. She hadn't done anything wrong, unless of course training was wrong. Odd had discovered her training with her Bladed Tonfas in the backyard of the Hermitage, following her needless to say, and dragged her to his room. She explained several times she didn't have time to waste on trivial things when Xana was back, and with the new Cortex she had to be prepared.

"Odd you aren't listening to me are you?" Crystalic folded her arms and glared.

Odd disregarded that statement, and instead handed her his Nintendo DS and 3 games. "We can't have another Jeremy here! Come on Crystalic have a little fun once in awhile!"

She stared at the strange device in her hands. "It's not like this will help fight Xana or gain information on the Cortex."

"There you go again talking like Jeremy." He pushed her out of his room. "Just try it ok? You can't keep working without fun forever."

With that he had closed the door on her. She shrugged and walked to her dorm room, turning on the device he called a DS and created a new game.

To Odd's surprise though, she returned 4 days later with all 3 game cleared along with secrets found. That moment was what brought her to this current mess. It was now Saturday afternoon and Odd was dragging her to the Mall downtown. First strike for her was when the bus off campus pulled up.

Crystalic froze when the bus's doors opened and Odd had to pull her in. She sat down in one of the seats near the window and seemed in a slight panic.

"What's wrong?" Odd leaned over to look at her.

Crystalic shook a little, and with a shaky voice replied, "I'm…fi…fine… nothing to worry about." She closed her eyes for the rest of the ride.

"Crystalic?" Odd grabbed her shoulder and she jumped. "Uh we're here."

"So we are." She hurried off the bus. "Now explain to me again why we are here?"

"Well my blue haired friend, since we found a calling in video games we are hitting up Game Stop!" Odd grinned his little heart out.

She sighed. "Odd, my calling is not Video Games, nor am I participating in this shopping spree. Aren't you broke anyways?"

Odd retained his cheery mood, surprisingly. "Yep! I'm just here to help you pick them out."

"Baka Neko." Crystalic muttered. She gave up and just followed him until he stopped in front of a movie store.

Odd stood watching a Tv displaying a movie promo. "Oh cool Death's Mark is coming out next month!"

"Death's Mark?" She raised an eyebrow and read a poster.

'In a city of medical wonders, where anything can be cured and where people live longer, Death has become restless. With humanity getting closer to ruining the balance of life and death, Death itself has struck to return the order. Those Marked are destined to die after cheating Death once.'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Crystalic jumped at the scream and turned to the television displaying the trailer.

A little girl screamed and pointed at the scythe mark on the windshield of the car.

The mother screamed at her husband. "I warned you coming here and cheating death wouldn't work!"

"I couldn't let you die dear!" The father held onto the steering wheel.

"Now you've doomed us all!"

"DADDY WATCH OUT!" The little girl screamed as blood spattered onto her face. The father in the process of arguing with his wife, had driven off road and crashed into the forest, killing both adults on impact.

"Noo!" Crystalic exclaimed, trembling. It was happening again.

"Woah what a way to go huh?" Odd looked over to Crystalic. "Are you sure you're ok?"

Crystalic grabbed her head as memories began to flash. The screams, the tears, the look on their faces.

"No, I'm not. That trailer brought back a few bad memories."

She looked up and saw Odd on his phone. "Yeah Jeremy? A spectre now? There isn't a way we can get to the factory from here." He heard someone behind him. "Sorry I'll move." He looked into the eyes of a spectre in the form of an old lady.

" Forget the fact we can't get to the factory." Crystalic Stood up, a bit shaky still. "Run!"

"Right behind you!" Odd bolted.

* * *

-Mall parking lot-

For 15 minutes the spectre chased Odd and Crystalic all over the mall before the managed to get away in the parking lot. It wouldn't be long before it caught up and Odd looked around.

"In here! Under the tarp!" Odd pulled up a tarp that was in the back of someone's truck.

"But…" Crystalic faltered before giving in and jumped inside the bed of the truck.

The truck roared to life a few minutes later as the driver returned from the mall.

"Well at least we can get away from granny huh? Hey!" Odd whispered as Crystalic latched onto him. "I know I'm huggable but come on!"

She was shaking like a motorboat, Odd noticed. It seemed weird to see her so scared. After all she was usually the bravest of the group.

"I'm sorry but just…" she latched tighter.

"Are you afraid of vehicles or something?"

She squeaked out a yes and softened her grip until the truck began to swerve, as if the driver lost control.

Odd peeped out the tarp. "Oh shit the spectre found us." The truck ran off the road. "Get ready for impact!" He grabbed Crystalic and jumped out of the truck before it crashed.

"You alright?" He looked down at her unconscious face. "I'll take that as a maybe." He set her down and grabbed a stick. "Oh yeah spectre you want to fight!"

Odd didn't get his chance to hit the spectre before it exploded due to the tower getting deactivated at that moment.

* * *

-flashback-

_"Mr. Franz was nice. I wish I met Aelita though! " Little 5 year old Ashley/Crystalic._

_Her mother looked back at the backseat. "Aelita has been busy with school lately Ashley so she wasn't able to meet you. I'm glad you enjoyed the visit to France pumpkin."_

_"Franz is a dear old friend of ours. It was nice to catch up with him. I'm concerned about that project of his however." Her father kept his eyes on the road ahead and saw something. "Damnit Lidiya they found us!"_

_"The same men Franz told us took Anthea? Oh no James hurry!"_

_"What's wrong?" Ashley asked with no reply._

_She looked out a window. There was a black van with angry bad men in it._

_"Mommy I'm scared!"_

_"I know you are baby!"_

_The van slammed into the car. Her dad lost control and the car hit a nearby tree and burst into flames._

_"Mommy! Daddy!" Ashley shook both of them. They were covered in blood and not moving. "Wake up something bad happening!"_

_"Take my hand!" She heard a voice and turned to see a strange boy. Her eyes hurt are were blurry, so she couldn't see him clearly._

_"But my mommy and daddy won't wake up!"_

_"It's too late just come!" The boy grabbed her and dragged her away from the car before it exploded._

_"NOOOO!"_

_A girl walked up beside the boy and whispered what Ashley heard as "Thanks." before she knelt before her. "Listen Ashley. I know you're confused and don't know what is going on. But you are safe now. We are taking you somewhere safe._

_She broke into tears and fell asleep awhile later in the boy's arms._

* * *

-Aelita and Crystalic's dorm-

Odd held Crystalic's hand, hoping she'd wake up soon. Somehow sensing this, She smiled slightly to the familiar feeling.

* * *

**Ok this isn't one of my best chapters but it's ok enough since Crystalic hasn't had any major parts lately.**


	6. Miss Einstein

**Chapter 4 Miss Einstein**

**Yep time to meet Laura already. As of right now I kinda feel sorry for Laura in the show the way she's treated just like William once was which is why on Crystalic's reference sheet I noted that they would be friends. Oops I'm giving too much away hehehe. Well on with the chapter!**

* * *

-Library-

"Really?!" Crystalic sighed.

She looked around the library seeing every table packed with students. Crystalic had hoped that by coming here early she would be able to work on a program Franz Hopper had given her, but it seemed that she'd have to find somewhere else. She started to leave when she noticed an empty seat by a blonde girl a year behind her.

"Excuse me. Is this seat vacant?" Crystalic asked.

The girl shook her head. "No it's empty go ahead. I'm Laura, Laura Gauthier."

" It's nice to meet you Gauthier-san. My name is Crystalic Landers." Crystalic sat down and opened her laptop.

"Strange hair color, if you don't mind me saying." Laura looked at Crystalic's sky blue hair in curiosity. "Almost like a video game character."

"Nope it's fine. It's natural if you're wondering." It was somewhat of a lie. Before it was just dyed every month to hide from the men in black. However a few weeks prior she had slipped a program into the supercomputer from Franz that really was able to alter genetics and change her hair blue for real.

"Natural like Aelita Stone's?"

"Well Aelita inherited it from her mother. My mother visited my father at work in a lab while she was pregnant with me and an accident happened. Thankfully it only messed with the DNA for my hair."

Crystalic tapped away on the computer and grunted when the program beeped in failure.

"What are you working on?" Laura peeked over.

"Nothing really. Just an upgrade for my avatar in a video game my friends and I are making. Although it doesn't seem to be working."

She moved her seat closer to Crystalic. "Can I take a look? I'm good with computers, and video games are my forte."

Crystalic shrugged. "Go ahead, you might have better luck if that's the case. What harm could there be." It reality she was going to have to ask Jeremy, even though she wanted to keep it a secret for now. "The program seems to fail to run at all, I'm not sure how though."

"It could be possible that it's not meant to be run on this laptop." Laura clicked on a few things before a screen popped up with CARTHAGE. "Carthage? What does that mean?"

"It's one of the levels in the game, but I don't see…" Crystalic saw another set of vague instructions.

" Carthage, activation through two means."

"That's it!" Crystalic jumped up and packed up her laptop. "Thank you so much Gaauthier-san" She bowed.

"Just call me Laura, and you are very welcome Crystalic. Seems like so much for a video game upgrade."

Crystalic didn't hear the last part as she ran off to the boiler room. Whatever started the program correctly, the clue led her to sector 5.

* * *

-Math class-

" A equals G… multiplied by R …." Jeremy struggled to answer the math question, which was a first for him. Mrs. Meyers stood back astonished that the boy genius was unable to answer a question. "No no sorry I forgot the mass. So that makes A equal to…"

Near the front row, Laura the new student, shook her head at the fact he struggled. She raised up her hand.

"Laura." Mrs. Meyers called out to her.

Laura smiled and walked up to the board, taking the chalk form Jeremy's hands. "Posing A is equal to the mass S multiplied by R squared, which gives us the root values of 6.67 multiplied by 10 to the 11th power…. Multiply all of it…. " She wrote up everything she said on the chalkboard.

Jeremy stared at Laura writing the answers. If one could read his mind, then Jeremy mentally kicking himself would come into view. Aelita looked over to him.

"Therefore, the answer is 29.7 kilometers per second." Laura put down the chalk and returned to her seat.

* * *

-Courtyard-

Jeremy sat on the bench sulking as Odd jumped up onto the brick wall behind him.

"Come on Einstein, it's not the end of the world. Beind humiliated in front of your girlfriend isn't too bad." Odd 'attempted' to cheer him up.

"Odd!" Aelita snapped and sat next to him, while Ulrich flicked Odd on the forehead.

"Don't listen to him Jeremy. You know being the smartest isn't such a big deal."

"Yes it is a big deal! I drew a blank and the exercise was so simple!" Jeremy held his head down.

"Yeah well that explains everything." Odd muttered.

"You're lucky Crystalic isn't here right now to slap some sense into you." Ulrich joked.

Jeremy disregarded Odd's statement and continued on. "I spent a week working to program the virtual vehicle that should allow you to return to the Cortex without getting squashed!"

"Hey what are you talking about?" Laura walked up to the group. "I heard you were programming a virtual vehicle in the Cortex."

"It's just a video game we are making." Aelita said with a hard stare of slight anger.

"Ah I love video games. Well not to play but to program. There was a girl this morning in the library, Crystalic was her name, that mentioned she was working on upgrading her avatar in game she was making with friends." Laura beamed.

Ulrich leaned over to Odd. "We really all need to stop speaking of this stuff in public areas."

"I love all kinds of scientific classes like you. Only I don't mess up super easy problems." Laura struck a nerve in Jeremy.

"Who does she think she is!" Aelita grunted.

"Great, a girl version of Jeremy!" Ulrich laughed.

Odd pushed Aelita a little. "Looks like you aren't the only Miss Einstein anymore Aelita."

* * *

-Courtyard a bit later-

Yumi walked up to the stone table the rest of the group was sitting at. "Hey guys. Boy Jeremy you don't look too happy. Forget a decimal point?"

Jeremy sat there looking down at the table in a depressed mood. Aelita grinned a little next to him as if joking with Yumi.

"Actually Einstein met his match. " Odd said.

"Laura Gauthier, the new gifted student who joined our class." Ulrich added.

"Can we stop talking about this!" Jeremy almost shouted. "Where is Crystalic?"

Yumi looked at him with no clue on her face. "I don't know. She didn't come to class so I assumed she was testing something for you."

"No I havn't asked her to do anything."

"Laura mentioned she saw Crystalic this morning so she isn't dead." Odd replied. " Maybe she's just busy with something. You did ask her if she could find anything out about the Cortex."

"Speaking of the Cortex, any news Jeremy?" Yumi asked, interrupting Odd.

"Yes, I recovered quite a lot of data the last time. Remember Xana's replikas based on Lyoko's sectors? " Jeremy replied.

"Using codes my father gave me." Aelita said.

Jeremy nodded. "At first I thought the same thing, that Xana created a kind of Matrix thingy. "

Ulrich spoke up. "But that isn't the case this time?"

"No, the Cortex existed before Xana's rebirth. I'm sure it was created by a quantum computer, different than ours though."

"By who this time? Another by my father?" Aelita asked.

"For now, we don't know if Franz Hopper was involved or not." Jeremy shook his head.

"I saw a photo of him while I was in the Cortex."

Jeremy was silent for a moment. " We'll just have to go back there tonight." The group all voted yes in agreement.

"Anyways where the hell is Crystalic?" Odd pondered.

Jeremy pulled out his phone and tried to call her. "It's going straight to voicemail. Did she turn her phone off?"

Aelita grabbed her laptop and connected to Lyoko with it. "Found her. She's in Sector 5."

"Hey Crystalic what are you doing by yourself?" Jeremy plugged in his headset.

The blue haired girl jumped when the interface appeared in front of her. "Oh hi. I was just trying to see if I could find any information on the Cortex in sector 5's database. So far nothing." she lied.

"That's what you have been doing all day?" Yumi questioned.

"All day?" Crystalic looked at the time displayed on her visor and read off the 1pm time. "Ah crap."

"Speaking of the Cortex, we are actually going to explore it and see if we can gain access to the interface there again." Jeremy pointed out.

"If I devirtualized now, then I won't be able to return to Lyoko in time for the mission." Crystalic 'turned' to Yumi. "Cover for me in classes please?" She begged.

"Alright. Next time tell us if you're going in solo." Yumi caved into the pleading. "For all we know Xana could have put you out of commission."

"I apologize. Odd you can have my dinner." Crystalic winked.

Odd jumped up in glee. " Woot! Thank you it's spaghetti and meatballs night!"

* * *

-Hallways later that afternoon-

"Jeremy!" Jeremy, Aelita, and Odd heard a familiar voice behind them as they walked.

"Hi Laura" Jeremy said, with Aelita giving a 'hmmph' quietly.

"I was looking for you. Are you gonna work on your game?" Laura smiled, she was obviously intrigued by the lie they told her.

"We can't hide anything from you. It's still being developed and there's a lot of work to do."

"In any case, like I said, if you need help, I'm real hot…." She looked at Aelita slighty, as if she choose wrong words to describe. "With computer science that is."

"That's nice, Laura, but it's top secret." Aelita to get Laura to drop the subject. "We don't want the idea to get stolen."

Laura seemed disappointed, but understood what she was saying. "Alright but ask me if you need help. I'd love to be a part of it."

Odd spewed some fumes. "Unbelievable! that's the second time she spoke to you in one day!" He grinned a little. "I think she's in love with you."

Aelita's expression dropped. "Or she's just nosy." The pinkette walked away.

* * *

-Factory-

Jeremy sat in his chair and put on the headset. "Crystalic I'm sending the others to meet up with you."

She sighed in a way that Jeremy couldn't hear her. "Ok I'll meet them in the Skid Hanger then."

"That's fine." He pulled up the virtualization program and switched his attention to the rest of the gang downstairs. "You all there?"

"Ready to go Jeremy!" Aelita replied.

_Transfer Odd, Transfer Aelita._

_Scanner Odd, Scanner Aelita._

_Virtualization!_

"Ok Yumi, Ulrich. You both are next."

_Transfer Yumi, Transfer Ulrich._

_Scanner Yumi, Scanner Ulrich._

_Virtualization!_

Yumi and Ulrich landed in the Arena next to Aelita and Odd. A few quick looks to make sure everyone was ready and they were off for the elevator.

* * *

-Kadic-

William strolled around the school grounds texting on his phone. He looked up to see a girl talking to him.

"You're part of Jeremy Belpois' group right?" Laura asked him.

He chuckled a little and grinned. "Depends on the day."

"Are you aware of their project?"

William was confused a little. "Project?"

"They told me that they're working on an online game that's ultra secret. I saw Crystalic Landers working on some avatar upgrade this morning, and then Jeremy was speaking about a vehicle in the Cortex."

William relaxed a little, realizing it was a story they told to hide Lyoko. "Ah yeah it's something secret I can't tell you anything about it. I better go check on them."

"They left through the park in a hurry. If you talked to them could you get me in?" Laura begged.

William shook his head. "No sorry it's a secret, and even I took awhile to get in." He disregarded the conversation and hurried off to catch up with them.

Laura, being a nosy pest she was, slowly followed in pursuit.

* * *

-Cortex-

Aelita parked the Skid near the edge of the Cortex, in case the area shifted again. They disembarked and watched the new vehicle appear before them. It was a yellow and black sphere cockpit with legs for the wheels spitting out form the corners.

"WOW! Can I drive?!" Odd inspected the new ride.

"NO!" Crystalic shouted in fear, partly because of the thought of him driving, and the other part being her phobia. "I'll drive, it will be much safer!"

"Oh please if you drive we wouldn't get there for hours!"

"No I'll drive." Ulrich offered.

"All of you stop!" Jeremy yelled. "Anyways it's my present to you. The Multipod Rolling Articulated Spheroid Cortexian Tecto-compatible Mega Vehicle. It's built to be able to withstand the landscape changes that occur in the Cotex, so you don't get devirtualized if you hit a wall."

Ulrich and Yumi smiled at each other, Aelita walked up to the vehicle, while Crystalic and Odd looked at each other in confusion over the name.

"Could you make a more complicated name?" Odd complained.

"Why is it too easy to remember?" Jeremy joked.

Crystalic rolled her eyes. "Well with Odd here I think he'd get stuck on Multip…" She struggled, forgetting what Jeremy rambled off. "Hell let's call it the Megapod and get it over with."

"Hey you stole my name." Odd poked her.

"I didn't steal it, I thought of it and said it first. Anyways you guys can ride in it and I'll just take my Overdisk nearby and check the pathway." Crystalic summoned it and hopped on.

"No Crystalic, it's too dangerous with the unpredictable nature of the Cortex's movement." Jeremy explained.

She looked at Odd and quietly said, "Damn it! If anything happens I blame you, regardless of who is driving."

"Who is piloting it anyways Jeremy?" Aelita rubbed her hand on one of the wheels.

"ME!" Ulrich and Odd shouted.

"I said it first!" Odd pointed at himself, while Ulrich put up his fists.

Yumi face palmed. "It'll be Yumi." she heard and smiled. "Sorry boys."

Odd and Ulrich's jaws dropped. "But why?!" They both complained.

"She didn't ask." Was all Jeremy said.

"Why do the girls always get to drive the cool things?" Odd muttered.

"Because we don't drive like you." Crystalic gulped and virtualized inside with the others. She sat in the back with the boys, who had mad faces, while Yumi took the driver's seat with Aelita next to her.

"You'll see Yumi, it's super simple to drive." Jeremy said, as Yumi looked over all the controls. "It's like the vehicles in Galactic Destructor."

"But I haven't played Galactic Destructor." Yumi hovered her right hand over some buttons, not knowing which ones to press. Aelita, seeing her confused, pressed a few of them to pull up the interfaces for the Megapod's stats and vision.

"Don't worry it's intuitive."

Yumi didn't feel so reassured. "If you say so…"

Crystalic leaned against Odd a little bit. "This isn't going to go well is it?" she whispered.

"Well I'm not driving!" Odd, still mad, replied. He jumped up and leaned next to Yumi. "We could switch places! I'm good at Galactic Destructor!"

Crystalic pulled him back into his seat. "If you're driving I'm taking my chances walking there!" Everyone laughed.

"Hold on" Yumi said, grabbing the steering joysticks and sent the Megapod racing forward.

Odd leaned against his seat. "I'm gonna be sick!"

"I hope you thought to add barf bags, Jeremy." Ulrich smiled. "Odd and Crystalic both look like they don't enjoy the ride."

The Cortex began moving again, this time platforms ahead of them opened up to the digital sea.

"Watch out!" Aelita shouted. Yumi put on a serious face, and drove the Megapod so that it started to fly over the gap. Ulrich and Odd began screaming in the back, while Crystalic curled up into a ball counting in Japanese.

"Be careful Yumi!" Jeremy reminded the Geisha.

"You said your Megapod adapted itself!" She paniced a little as a wheel got stuck dragging on the edge of a paltform.

"Yes it adapts. Even so, you still need to anticipate the terrain!" Jeremy explained, wondering now why he chose Yumi to drive.

"Jyu san , Jyu yon, Jyu go." Crystalic got to 15 now, and was still going not daring to open her eyes,

"We can still change places!" Odd demanded.

"Stop it!" Yumi looked back to him. "If you think this is easy, you are wrong!"

In the process of not paying attention, the Megapod hit walls that poked out and flipped over before flying off onto another platform a bit lower. Yumi made it skid to a stop.

"Ni jyu ichi, ni jyu ni, ni jyu san." After screaming a little with the others, Crystalic continued at 21 counting faster this time.

"What are you doing?" Ulrich looked over a bit worried for her.

She stopped and looked at him trying to hide her fear. "Counting in Japanese."

"Are you alright?" Aelita leaned back.

"No no… Not really. Truth be told…. I have a fear of vehicles." She said.

"So that's why you wanted to follow us on the Overdisk. You could have told us." Aelita comforted her.

"I'll be fine, as long as we don't try to drive off the Cortex again.." Crystalic gulped, starting to wonder if she'd be better off with Odd driving.

* * *

-Factory-

William walked fast to the elevator. He was mad again that the gang didn't mention any mission to him again, leaving him out. He pressed the button on the elevator and went down into the lab. Behind some nearby crates, Laura peeked out to make sure the coast was clear and walked up to the elevator controls. She felt it was strange that they would hide out in an abandoned factory but at the same time she was curious. Laura looked over the different buttons trying to determine which was the correct one.

* * *

-Lab-

The elevator doors opened, causing Jeremy to jump a little in his seat.

"Damn it William! Next time call first. You scare me every time!" Jeremy yelled at him.

"You too!" William yelled back. "When you send the others to Lyoko! You still don't trust me? Didn't I save the day last time?"

"Ok, I told you that we were gonna talk about it, but we are kinda in a bind right now." Jeremy waved over to the monitors.

William grew more frustrated. "Yeah, and next time it'll be something else!"

"We'll talk about it later." Jeremy tried to calm him down, only failing to do so.

"Whatever. I'm tired of being a stand in." William shrugged him off, no longer wanting to be there any longer. He returned to the elevator and walked hastily out of the factory.

Laura came out of hiding once more after William disappeared. Returning her attention to the buttons, she pulled the panel off revealing a hidden pass code system.

* * *

-Cortex-

"Something bothering you Aelita?" Yumi looked over to the other girl in the front seat.

"Just thinking about my father. What if it's really his fault that Xana is back?" She replied, still depressed.

" Your….fa..father is a good man." Crystalic attempted to talk somewhat sane. "The Cortex… is sim..similar to Ly….Lyoko's sector 5, but I can tell it wa…was programmed differently."

"So you think someone else developed the Cortex based off of Franz Hopper's work and brought back Xana?" Yumi asked.

" It's ve…very possible. Franz had many enemy's from his time working on Project Car….Carthage along with my parents."

"She's right. Your father can't be involved he's…" Yumi struggled to find a way to say it gently.

"Gone I know, for good. I know we'll find the truth soon." Aelita tried to reassure herself. The boys and Crystalic looked at each other not knowing what to say to Aelita.

"No not that soon. Truth be told I miscalculated our course. We're going to need to go around the core to access the entrance." Yumi turned the Megapod around as they reached the location of the core.

Not accounting for the way the terrain was shaped, one of the Megapod's wheels got stuck in a crack between two sections and flipped over. All five of them screamed in a panic before it stopped moving.

"Nothing's working! I think the wheel's stuck!" Yumi tried to jerk the Megapod out.

"See if I had been driving…" Odd started to say.

"Deep Freeze!" Crystalic used up 10 life points to freeze Odd's entire head before slamming him against the back of Aelita's seat and shattering it.

"OW!" He rubbed his head, sore from the pain.

"Thank you Crystalic! Now Odd shut your mouth!" Yumi shouted.

Ulrich held up his arm, slightly pointing at Yumi. "Never annoy her when she's driving."

"You too Ulrich!" Yumi yelled at him now, causing him to sit back in his seat quietly.

The Megapod started to shake, and lasers could be heard hitting the outer plating. "You have visitors!" Jeremy announced, breaking up the bickering going on inside the vehicle.

"You know what's missing in your Megapod, Einstein? A cannon!" Odd suggested.

Jeremy sighed. "Not a Megapod. It's called…." He realized he didn't have time to go through the drill of the entire name. "Oh forget it. Next time I'll put a stupid cannon in your Christmas stocking. For now, all of you, minus Yumi, will be fighting the old-fashioned way!" He hit a key on the keyboard and transferred them outside the Megapod.

"Thank you Jeremy!" Crystalic said, finally relived to be out of the Megapod.

"Time for some action!" Odd summoned his gloves and took off after a krabe.

Inside the Megapod, Yumi pressed buttons trying to find one that would get her out of this mess, only to cause the screens to disappear and leave her blind. "Oh now what did I do?"

* * *

-Lab-

"You bugged up the program." Jeremy said, leaving Yumi to face palm herself. "Hold on I'll get you out of there. He tapped franticly on the keyboard but nothing worked. "Oh no everything is frozen!" He sighed when the elevator opened up again. "William, I already told you…" He turned and stopped mid sentence, seeing Laura from his class.

"Hello Jeremy." Laura said, astonished by everything she was seeing. She looked over to Jeremy's dumbstruck face and just smiled like it wasn't a big deal she was there.

* * *

-Cortex-

Aelita flew over a Krabe and destroyed it quickly with energy fields. She turned her view to the core and started to fly over that way.

"What are you doing?" Ulrich blocked a few lasers.

"I'll let you guys handle things out here. I have to go check something."

Ulrich was concerned about her hasty choice, and ended up getting knocked down by the Krabe he was fighting. As he stood up he heard the Cortex singing, and looked around knowing the platforms would be shifting now. Just as he anticipated, the two panels that held the Megapod's wheel stuck moved apart, sending Yumi and the Megapod falling down.

"Shit Yumi!" Ulrich yelled. Crystalic and Odd turned hearing him and ran over to the edge to see the vehicle landing on some panels sticking out. The three jumped down to get into a better defensive position.

Ulrich watched Aelita return and land beside him. "Oh you're back?"

"I see you can't manage without me." She tossed two energy fields, hitting another krabe on mark.

"Jeremy I need help!" In the process of the Megapod's landing, Yumi was laying against in inside wall of the Megapod.

"Sorry something head over heels just happened." Jeremy said.

Crystalic jumped on top of the Megapod and started to slash at it with her Eclipse Blades. "Whatever it is, get Yumi out now!"

"I'm trying, the supercomputer is all bugged up. You four will just have to defend her from the krabes in the meantime. If they manage to destroy the Megapod, Yumi will fall into the digital sea and be gone forever!" Jeremy said.

* * *

-lab-

"It's not really a video game, is it?" Laura asked, starting to realize this was something different that what she was told. "Your buddies are in there?

"More or less." Jeremy wasn't in the mood to try and explain in much detail, trying to fixed the Supercomputer.

"Is this a quantum computer?"

"Isn't it obvious!" He rudely responded, shoving the keyboard forward and jumping out of his seat. He ran over and took off a panel form the wall and started to mess with the cords and buttons inside. He reattached the panel and hurried back to the computer.

"Jeremy, I'm starting to feel a bit lonely in here." Yumi said, starting to worry.

"I'm trying to get you out Yumi!" Crystalic said.

"I don't have four arms!" Jeremy responded.

Laura perked up a little, getting an idea. "On the contrary, I think you do. Listen I don't understand what's going on, but your friend seems to be in danger. If you need a hand I'll do anything you need." Laura offered.

* * *

-Cortex-

"Jeremy things are heating up here!" Ulrich blocked more lasers while Aelita flew down to the Megapod, shielding Crystalic and it.

"Thanks Aelita." Crystalic thanked her, and continued to slash at it.

"Where did he go?" Aelita muttered.

Odd jumped and shoved a Krabe into the digital sea. "Maybe he's flirting with the other Miss Einstein!"

Aelita lost her concentration on the shield and ended up getting devirtualized.

"Odd that isn't helping!" Crystalic scolded him.

* * *

-Lab-

Aelita entered the lab after being devirtualized and heard Jeremy yelling out orders to Laura.

"Replace interface 4AA13 with 3B6."

"4AA13 got it!" Laura said, still looking at the panels not realizing Aelita was there.

"What are you doing here, Laura?" Aelita asked.

"She's giving me a hand. Now, drop the runner to position 2." Jeremy replied. "That should boost the coding units."

Aelita's expression turned into anger. "I'll take over!" Aelita told Laura.

"No time! Laura's on the case!" Jeremy said, which surprised the pinkette. "Now you need to shunt circuit 5221"

* * *

-Cortex-

Odd ran up the walls back to the ground level and shot laser arrows at a krabe. In the mean time Ulrich deflected a laser and destroyed one krabe, throwing a sword at another.

"So would you still like Yumi's place?" Ulrich asked him.

Odd looked around at the endless krabes coming, then down to Crystalic trying to fend off two more. "I take back what I said. That machine's a trap." He said before getting shot from behind and devirtualized.

"Shut the hell up and defend yourselves!" Crystalic barked the order. "Ice spike!" She formed a spike of ice and tossed it at a krabe above her. She then leaped at the second one and destroyed it with a few melee attacks.

"Hold on Yumi! I wont let you fall!" Ulrich leaped down onto the Megapod, only to get devirtualized right after from several krabes.

"Good job Romeo. That sure tells those krabes whose boss." Crystalic threw several more ice spikes before getting hit by a few lasers. She looked on the numbers on her visor. "20 life points huh? Better make this count then." She looked down to the Megapod. "Sorry Yumi looks like its over for us. Better start praying that Jeremy fixes the damn supercomputer."

"Crystalic!" Yumi shouted, worried for her.

"Deep freeze!" Crystalic used up another 10 life points to freeze on of the middle krabes. "Shatter!" The frozen krabe shattered, and the pieces of ice that broke off flew and took out several krabes near it. "Shit!" A krabe snuck up behind her, devitalizing her without much effort.

The remaining krabes fired several more laser at the Megapod, sending it falling off the small supports it had.

* * *

-lab-

"Hurry Laura!" Jeremy panicked.

Laura quickly finished moving the panels around. "Finished!"

Jeremy didn't hesitate when he saw the Megapod was falling into the digital sea now. He quickly devirtualized Yumi just before the Megapod hit the Digital Sea.

Downstairs in the scanner room, Ulrich, Odd, and Crystalic smiled when the scanner opened up and revealed Yumi safe and sound. After a brief hug, they headed the elevator to meet up with Jeremy.

Back in the lab, Jeremy leaned back in relief, while Laura smiled at an unamused Aelita.

* * *

-Lab a bit later-

"And you still managed to keep the secret until now?" Laura asked, after the gang finished explaining everything to her.

"You could say that some people are more curious than others." Jeremy referred to Laura.

"In any case, if I understand right, you saved my life. So thank you." Yumi smiled at Laura.

"Your welcome. I'm happy if I could help you pull off your mission."

Crystalic, who was lying down on the floor with her legs up against the wall and her back on the floor, tapped away on her laptop. She had her self positioned in the corner so that her bag covered up her other side so the boys wouldn't she anything while she was in one of her comfortable positions.

"Actually the mission was to get as much information from the Cortex, but all we really succeeded in doing was testing the Megapod."

"It was a total fiasco!" Aelita shouted at Laura in a pissed off mood. "I didn't even manage to get into the core. Think you can reprogram the Megapod quickly?"

"It's not as complicated as the skid, but I need to improve the system and install weapons." Jeremy said, folding his arms against his chest.

"Yeah and Yumi was almost lost today." Laura said, not realizing she shouldn't have spoken with the way Aelita was reacting. "Think a little about the others, Aelita."

Aelita started to say a comeback, only Ulrich interrupted her. "Right, let's decide what to do with Laura."

"It's true that she could really help me in the lab when Aelita is virtualized." Jeremy turned to Laura. "In short, either we integrate you into the team or press a button. We can go back and time and erase your memory."

"Everything?" Laura now hoped they let her in. If she really forgot all of this she would lose her chance to be a part of managing a quantum computer!

"Everything. You'll never know what you saw here. "

"We vote." Yumi suggested.

"I don't care as long as it doesn't end up like the William situation. And no I'm not talking about when he was Xanafied." Crystalic voiced her opinion.

Aelita didn't give the others the chance to say what they felt. She walked straight over to the Supercomputer and launched the Return to the Past.

* * *

-Math class-

The return trip sent them back into their respective classes earlier that morning.

"Sorry Aelita. I didn't mean to hurt you." Jeremy whispered to her, knowing she was upset. "It's just Yumi was in danger, and you were on the Cortex…"

"I know." Aelita sighed. "I'm just suspicious of her. I don't know why."

"Who can give me the velocity of the Earth's center of inertia?" Mrs. Meyers asked the class.

"You going to raise your hand?" Aelita asked Jeremy.

"I know the answer already." he said, seeing Laura's hand raised.

Aelita pushed him a little. "This isn't the time for fair play, get up there!"

He gave up and raised his hand and was called up.

"Well, look at that." Odd leaned up to Aelita. "That's not very moral. And here I took you for a nice person."

"I am. It's just that there can be only one Miss Einstein." She grinned at Odd, who returned it while a chuckle.

"Therefore, the answer is 29.7 kilometers per second." Jeremy finished the explanation of the answer.

* * *

-science class-

Crystalic threw open the door to the science room. "Excuse me!"

"Landers! Your 15 minutes late to class!" Ms. Hertz said.

"Sorry Sensei. The shower I was using this morning wasn't working properly so I had to wait for another available shower to finish bathing this morning. I ended up running late." Crystalic bowed and walked over to her seat.

"Alright but try not to be late again!" She turned back to the blackboard.


	7. Rivalry pt1

**Chapter 5 Rivalry pt 1**

**Enter another Ulrich vs. William fued. Come on boys get along! Also this whole time I was an idiot. The weapons I designed for Crystalic are not Arm Blades . I couldn't find a name for them at the time (I based them off the Fist of the Deity Weapon from World of Warcraft so yeah… ). They are actually called Bladed Tonfas. Excuse me while I go edit every chapter and reference sheet.**

***10 minutes later* ok I'm done. Sorry this chapter isn't weekly like I was going. I've been busy with graduation being in less than a month so updates might be a few weeks apart. Pt1 of episode 5 for now until I can get to it later. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

-Courtyard-

"Come on Jeremy be nice!" Odd sat there pleading over and over to the boy genius, who wasn't budging. "I just want new gadgets on Lyoko."

"The last time you asked for something new on Lyoko there ended up being three of you and you almost disappeared." Crystalic rolled her eyes.

"That was before, this is now." Odd turned back to Jeremy. "Not even tiny laser beams that come out of my eyes?"

"You've been reading too many comics."

Jeremy shook his head. "Stop it Odd. I don't have time for gadgets. Let me remind you about Xana…."

"Yeah, ok." William walked over to the group, instantly silencing them all in his presence. "Talking about Lyoko? Don't mind me at all." William looked over to Yumi. "Can I see you for 2 seconds please Yumi? I think I found something cool for our presentation."

"What about me? Don't forget I'm in your group as well." Crystalic asked.

"I'll email you the information tonight. Can you create the PowerPoint for us?"

Crystalic sighed, obviously knowing that he wanted to be with Yumi alone. "Yeah sure."

Yumi grabbed her bag. "Sorry I gotta go guys. Duty calls." Everyone looked at her with understanding faces and she went off with William. Although Ulrich in the back, stared with jealousy at William.

* * *

-Math class-

Odd elbowed Ulrich next to him, disregarding the fact that Mrs. Meyers was in the middle of a lesson.

"Ulrich guess what? I've got a thing going with Elodie, the 10th grade blonde in class B." Ulrich grinned a little at the fact Odd was obsessing over another girl again. "She doesn't know it yet but she's crazy about me."

Ulrich stared back at his notebook, not really paying attention anymore.

"Hey are you listening to me? You're as clamped shut as an oyster in an oil spill." Odd nudged him.

"I'm sick of him always hanging out with Yumi." Ulrich spilled.

Odd shook his head. "You're creating this whole movie about them in your head, in 3D with popcorn and everything. It's just a project, Ulrich buddy. Even Crystalic hasn't seen them doing more than that."

"Yeah, whatever. I hope you are right." Ulrich spun his pencil.

* * *

-Courtyard-

"Cool. We finished the introduction." Yumi closed her notebook while William shoved his work into his bag. "You impress me."

"You know, I always give my all when working in a team." He put the last book into his bag. "I'll email what we have to Crystalic later. I'm reliable despite what they may think." William stood up. "We'll meet up later? I have to go train."

"Ok later." Yumi smiled and went back to cleaning up her work. She heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see William again. "William, did you forget something?"

Willaim's eyes flashed the eye of Xana, and the spectre reach for Yumi's shoulders. It grabbed her in a tight hug and began draining the codes within her.

"Let me go!" Yumi struggled to break free, but no matter what she did, the spectre had a tighter grip.

* * *

-Hallway-

Nearby the courtyard, Ulrich, Odd and Crystalic were walking to meet up with the gang.

"Elodie! Yeah, it's Odd." Odd was fixated on the conversation with a girl, which seemed to be one-sided from what Crystalic could tell.

"Poor girl, sounds like she's the target of a one way relationship." Crystalic said with sympathy.

"Oh this is normal. If it wasn't her avoiding him, she'd be hitting him and breaking up a day later." Ulrich laughed.

"Am I bothering you?" Crystalic looked back over to Odd, who maybe got the hint that Elodie didn't want to talk. "Ok I'll call later then." Odd hung up and turned to his friends.

"Classical tactic."

"And that is what? Annoy the girl to death?" Crystalic joked.

"No. She's acting like she doesn't like me. She can't take it anymore."

"Yeah can't take the sound of your voi- I'm going to KILL HIM!" Ulrich suddenly shouted and ran over to Yumi, who was in a death grip by William.

"Are they kissing or what?" Odd looked to Crystalic, who just shrugged in response.

As Ulrich got closer to the duo, he caught on to what was happening. "It's not William. It's a spectre!"\

Ulrich grabbed the spectre and threw him away from Yumi, grabbing Yumi before she fell.

"Thanks." Yumi moaned.

"Odd you go to the Factory. Ulrich, you and I will distract the Spectre. I have to go to detention anyways for the rest of school." Crystalic cracked her knuckles and took off with Ulrich with spectre in tow.

-Park-

"Jeremy?" Odd said, walking to the manhole with a tired Yumi hanging over him. "We got attacked by a spectre. Yumi's touched."

"Ok keep her safe. Aelita and I are coming."

* * *

-Kadic-

Ulrich and Crystalic ran through the dozens of students standing in the hallway as they attempted to escape the William spectre. Crystalic checked her watch and looked behind her.

"I have to get to detention before Morales-sensei gives me more hours. I'll stall the spectre long enough for you to hide."

Ulrich nodded. "Good luck."

"Don't need it." She smirked and stopped while he ran ahead. "Alright Xana, let's tango."

The spectre grinned and raised his hand up, preparing to shock her.

"Landers!"

The spectre looked at Jim, who came running over after spotting Crystalic and grunted in frustration. Without a second look, it ran off in the direction that Ulrich had ran.

"Oh hello Morales-sensei. I was just coming to detention." She smiled, as if nothing was wrong.

"Yeah sure. You were probably plotting something with Dunbar there. Never mind that and enough with the whole sensei stuff. Had enough of that when I taught in Japan for a month. Just call me Jim." Jim placed his hand on her back and began leading her to the detention room.

"Ichido Nihon de oshiete?" 'You once taught in Japan?' She seemed surprised.

He smiled at her. "Sore wa nagai jikan maedeshita. Shikashi, watashi wa mushiro sore no hanashide wa nai to omoimasu." 'It was a long time ago. But I'd rather not talk about it.' "Now come, you have 4 hours of detention awaiting for that little stunt this morning."

* * *

-Lab-

Jeremy and Aelita entered the lab and looked towards the duo sitting down by the holomap.

"Are you alright Yumi?" Aelita ran over to Yumi, who hung her head trying to bear the dizziness.

"I'd say I've had better times than this." Yumi shrugged.

Jeremy looked around. "Where's Crystalic and Ulrich?"

"We left them at the park. Ulrich is distracting the spectre, while Crystalic had to go to the detention." Odd threw his hands up quickly as he stood up.

"Detention? How'd she manage that?" Aelita raised her eyebrow.

Odd grinned and faked a laugh. "Well she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got blamed for a little chicken Jim incident."

"I'm surprised she hasn't tried to punish you yet." Yumi said.

"Well we don't have a minute to lose. We'll have to manage without them." Jeremy sat down at the computer chair.

-Lyoko-

Yumi landed on the desert plateau and stretched. " I feel much better now. Jeremy, any news on Ulrich?"

"I'll try to get a hold of him. In the meantime, head towards the tower. 72 degrees to the east." Jeremy replied, while virtualizing the Overwing and Overboard.

"Something's bugging me." Odd said, a few minutes into the journey. "It's really weird that you couldn't tell the difference between the real William and the spectre."

Yumi glared at him. Aelita leaned over a bit. "Odd you're being a real pain."

"And may I ask, is Xana a good kisser?" Odd closed his eye and laughed, before one of Yumi's fan's flew past him. "Hey you could have hit me!"

"That was the plan! AUGH! Give me a reason why I shouldn't devirtualize you!" Yumi picked up speed and left him in the dust.

"Fine since we can't even have fun anymore!" Odd stopped the Overboard for a moment and sighed. "You know I kinda miss Crystalic mothering right about now."

"You're the one who got her detention Odd." Jeremy said. His phone rang. "Ulrich how are you doing?"

"So far so good. Hurry up though!" Students looked at him funny as he ran around the school. "I don't know how much longer I can hold him off now that Crystalic's gone."

"We can see the tower Jeremy!" Yumi said, calling his attention back to the supercomputer.

"Be careful, monsters just appeared on my screen."

"Just a couple of Tarantulas." Odd shot arrows at the two tarantulas, who moved apart and looked back up to him.

One of the tarantulas opened fire at the Overwing, devirtualizing it in 6 hits. A laser coming from out of nowhere flew at Yumi, devirtualizing her not long after.

"Something's wrong." Jeremy said as Yumi came up from the elevator.

"Where are this shot's coming from?" Aelita exclaimed, back flipping to avoid lasers from somewhere unseen.

"I don't know." Odd flew over and grabbed her. "We have to get somewhere safe." He jumped off with Aelita as the overboard rammed into a rock. "Jeremy, how many monsters are on your screen."

"Three, why?"

Odd peeked over the rock they hid behind. "Well that's a problem we can only see two." He watched the two tarantulas move closer to the rock, and barely dodged a laser from the side.

"The third monster, it has to be invisible somehow!" Aelita said.

-Kadic-

* * *

Ulrich ran behind a pillar, and gasped for breath before pulling out his cell phone.

"Jeremy how much longer?"

"Not much. They're almost there."

"Good, I don't think I can hold out much longer." Ulrich looked around the pillar to see the spectre scanning the area. "I have to go, he spotted me."

Ulrich ran into the Gym and barricaded the door. He turned around and saw William turning around to see who came in. "So you can walk through walls now?" Ulrich threw his bag down. "Well come and get me Xana."

"What the hell are you talking about?" William asked, assuming he was mental.

"William?"

"Well yeah that's my name." William said. "Who else would a I be."

Ulrich calmed down a little and checked the barricade. "There's a spectre that looks like you. It chased me all over the school."

"A spectre. Does that mean the others are on Lyoko?" William said, obviously hurt he wasn't informed. "That's it then huh. I'm definitely not a Lyoko Warrior anymore huh. What happened to needing a extra hand? Or did Crystalic fill that spot for you?"

"We talked about this. You act on your own and get yourself stuck in situations." Ulrich replied to him, with no hint of regret.

"I'd say your afraid of the competition."

Ulrich exhaled and looked him straight in the face. He started to say a come back before the door behind him broke open. "He found me."

William stared at his Xana double.

* * *

-Lyoko-

"Aelita throw a force field at those shots." Odd pointed over to thin air but where lasers were being fired from.

"What?" Aelita looked over.

"Trust me! I got an idea." Odd jumped out from behind the rock and shot at the two visible tarantulas, causing them to back off.

Aelita followed behind and tossed a huge force field in the opposite direction. The force field flew straight until it hit something, causing the third tarantula to appear.

"Aelita give me a boost!" Odd jumped onto her back and flew over the third tarantula. A few laser arrows later and the previously invisible bugger was down for the count.

"Good idea Odd." Aelita smiled and was hit by one of the remaining tarantulas.

"Go ahead, I'll cover you." Odd waved her off towards the tower before running over and firing a barrage of laser arrows.

"Odd we are in a rush. You can deactivate the tower too!" Jeremy commanded.

"Why me? I hate going in there." Odd clenched his fists.

Aelita tossed a energy field at the tarantula focused on her. "Odd stop talking and go!"

Odd destroyed his monster and grinned. He broke into a cat style run and stared at the tower. Gulping, he closed his eye and phased into it.

-Kadic-

The spectre's hands glowed with electricity as it prepared to attack. William and Ulrich looked at each other praying they got the tower deactivated in time.

-Lyoko-

Odd landed on the top platform and placed his paw on the interface the moment it appeared.

_ODD_

_CODE_

_LYOKO_

* * *

-Detention-

Crystalic smiled as she watch the tower deactivate on her laptop.

'These kid's may just be the ticket to defeating Xana and my revenge.'


	8. Rivalry pt 2

**Chapter 5 Rivalry pt 2**

**Ok well I had a few shocks to the whole revenge thing last chapter which I expected. I invite you all to reread the end of chapter 3 just in case you forgot XD.**

* * *

-Jeremy's room-

"I'd say that if I hadn't gone heroically through that horrible tower wall, Ulrich here wouldn't have a single code left." Odd gloated about his victory while everyone chuckled at his exaggerations.

"Riiight. If you hadn't messed with Jim and got me Detention I would have had to push you!" Crystalic rolled her eyes.

"Hey you have to admit it was funny."

"Don't speak so soon Odd." Jeremy called their attention. " The spectre caused a lot of damage. I'm activating the procedure."

The computer roared to life as it began to assess the remaining codes in the four coded warriors.

_Aelita 88%_  
_Odd 68%_  
_Yumi 79%_  
_Ulrich 75%_

"So Odd is till the big loser huh?" Crystalic looked over to Yumi, who looked a bit sadden by the news.

"I lost more codes than I thought." She sighed.

"Ouch and looks like Xana is up to 75%. That's not good at all."

"Xana is trying to gain more power." Jeremy said. "We need to be careful."

"Anyway, ow I'll be super careful when a girl's all over me. You never know." Odd laughed, striking a nerve in Yumi without meaning to.

"Odd you don't know the meaning of careful." Crystalic shook her head.

"Well." Yumi turned around. "I have to go meet William again." She closed the door behind her without noticing Ulrich's jealousy sparking again.

"I'm gonna go unwind for a bit."

* * *

-Hallway-

"Don't you think Ulrich's being weird now?" Aelita asked.

"That's the William double-effect. Seeing two in the same day had to mess with his head." Odd spun his fingers around the side of his head, making the crazy in the brain motion.

Crystalic laughed. "It's obvious he's jealous that Yumi's spending so much time with him. If you ask me he needs to come out and say 'Oh Yumi I love you!' and get it over with."

"He's way to stubborn for that. I've been trying to get him to do that for years now."

"We at least I have some romance cooking right now." He stopped walking and pulled out his cell. "Hello Elodie? It's Odd. Della Robia you know."

While Odd was busy, Jeremy and Aelita looked at each other thinking the same thing. Aelita burst out laughing the minute Odd exclaimed about Elodie being busy. All of a sudden Odd tossed his cell on the ground.

"What the hell!" He looked down at his phone sparking and making a strange noise.

"This can't be possible. Xana's never launched two attacks in one day!" Jeremy tossed his on the ground as well.

"We need to warn the others." Aelita opened her bag to find her cell phone smoking. "Uh well that's not good. We can't even return to Lyoko for 12 hours."

"Well there is Ulrich and I. But if Xana's able to relaunch an attack so fast he has enough power to prevent Ulrich from getting into the Tower if we get caught off guard."

"If he gets devirtualized it's all over." Jeremy exclaimed. "You guys need backup."

"William?" Aelita suggested.

"That guy isn't reliable." Odd yelled.

"I'm with Aelita, he's all we have. If he starts something with Ulrich I'll be sure to end it one way or another." Crystalic cracked her knuckles.

* * *

-Gym-

"Ulrich!" Aelita ran into the gym where Ulrich was punching a punching bag. "Xana launched another attack."

"Cell phones exist you know."

"Not for long." Aelita replied. "Xana is trying to hack all the phone lines."

"Spectre attacks weren't enough for him anymore? Do the others know?"

"Crystalic's on her way to clear the way to the tower while Odd and Jeremy left to find William to go with you two to Lyoko."

Ulrich's eyes burned with anger. "William?! No way he's not coming. It's completely nuts!" Ulrich grabbed his jacket and stormed out the gym.

* * *

-Lyoko-

Crystalic materialized her visor. "Let's see. 49 degrees west. Simple enough." She head a beep and switched screens. "Oh hey Jeremy nice timing on virtualizing Ulrich. Did you guys find William too?" She received no response. "Jeremy?"

She felt something blur past her at a high speed. Looking back at the area map of her surroundings on the visor she could see Ulrich's dot.

"HEY ULRICH WAIT UP!" She hopped on the Overdisk and attempted to catch up to him. "Guessing he didn't take the William news nicely and virtualized himself."

"Unbelievable!" She heard Aelita's voice.

"Oh hi Aelita."

"Crystalic you have to catch up to him. He's the only one who can deactivate the tower!"

"Yes well my Overdisk can't exactly match his superspeed unfortunately."

Aelita turned her atttention to Ulrich. "Ulrich your doing exactly what you hate about William and that's going solo! Ulrich answer me!"

"I think you're just making him mad Aelita, but nice attempt."

* * *

-Courtyard-

"So basically, you only call me when things go wrong?" William replied, after the boys explained what was going on to him.

"We don't have time to discuss this!" Jeremy said. "We really need your help!"

"Why should I say yes?"

"Because Ulrich is alone and in danger." Yumi told him.

"You're right. He's not cut out to be solo."

* * *

-Factory-

"He's on Lyoko?" Jeremy rushed over to Aelita.

"We couldn't stop him."

"And after they say I'm the one who acts solo? At least Crystalic wasn't cocky about it." William smiled.

"Get to the scanners Willaim now!"

William landed in the Mountain sector next to Crystalic.

"Oh hey long time no see. I see you came to stop Ulrich as well?" she laughed, knowing something was bound to happen now.

William smiled. "Jeremy can you please send me the Overbike?"

"The Overbike? Oh somebody isn't going to be happy about his toys being messed with." Odd laughed and Yumi nodded.

"Not my problem." Jeremy said.

"Now this will be interesting!" Crystalic followed after William, who took off on Ulrich's Overbike.

They caught up to Ulrich, who was in the middle of reflecting lasers form the krabes and bloks attacking him.

"What the hell are you doing on my bike?!" Ulrich lost his concentration and was hit.

William circled around him and stopped to look around. "Nice welcome."

"The same could be said as to why you're flying solo and being suicidal." Crystalic jumped off her Overdisk and tossed it at one of the krabes.

"So I get the impression you'll have trouble doing this alone." William said.

"Oh yeah?" Ulrich was even more pissed now. He dashed under a krabe and jumped on it. He stuck his sabers into the eye on top and jumped back over to William smiling.

"Oh you wanna play now I see." William revved up the Overbike and drove it into a blok. He then jumped on the remaining krabe and sliced it with his sword. He super smoked back over to Ulrich. "Happy?"

"What are they playing?" Yumi said.

"If you ask me, it's who has the biggest sword." Odd shrugged.

Ulrich and William started to look as if they would break out in a fight, regardless of the remaining blok.

"BOYS! CONCENTRATE ALREADY!" Crystalic shouted.

Crystalic's warning didn't come fast enough. The last blok shot Ulrich knocking him to the edge of the sector. Before he could even stand he was shot again and barely grabbed the ground before he fell.

"Jeremy devirtualize him!" Aelita panicked.

"Then nobody will be able to deactivate the tower!"

"William grab him you can get there faster than me!" Crystalic yelled at William. She ran up to the blok and sliced it with her bladed tonfa.

William super smoked over to Ulrich, who was struggling to hold on for his life. "Take my hand."

Ulrich reached up and grabbed his hand and William pulled him up. "Thanks." He said with half attitude, his pride hurt.

"I think you have a tower to deactivate." Was all William said.

"Hurry! Xana's sent more monsters." Crystalic shouted over to him before getting devirtualized herself.

Ulrich nodded and super sprinted into the tower.

_ULRICH_

_CODE_

_LYOKO_

* * *

-Lab-

William bowed as the group cheered.

"So boys. Did you learn something today? Like say, no more fighting?" Crystalic pointed her finger at them.

"You really did it man! Without you, we would've been done for!" Odd congratulated William. He turned over to Crystalic who smacked him. "And you too of course Crystalic."

"I'm really sorry." Ulrich said to everyone. "I shouldn't have acted like that."

"You just cracked, it could happen to anyone."

"Some more than others." Crystalic huffed.

Odd looked at his phone. "Yes it works! Now I can get back to business!"

Everyone looked at each other giggling.

"Elodie, block off your calendar. Odd is back!"

Crystalic grabbed his phone. "For the last time leave that poor girl alone!"

"But she's totally in love with me! She's just playing hard to get."

"She's not playing you baka-neko! She doesn't like you! No girl on this planet likes you like that!"

"Why do you keep calling me baka-neko anyways? What does it even mean?!"

Crystalic poked him. "Baka means idiot and neko means cat. You're a cat on Lyoko but an idiot 24/7. Therefore you're a baka-neko! Also, you're not getting this phone back until you leave Elodie alone!"

"Oh come on Crystalic!"


End file.
